Another week, another (two) new boats from Saronic. Yesterday, the unmanned surface vessel (USV) company unveiled two new models — the 40-foot Mirage and the 60-foot Cipher. According to the company, the boats have been designed with extended range and up to 10,000 pounds of carrying capacity. Saronic CEO Dino Mavrookas said that the new […]
The future is here, apparently, and it’s electric. On Tuesday, aircraft company Electra announced a $115M Series B, led by Prysm Capital. Jay Park, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Prysm, has also joined Electra’s board of directors. Marc Allen, CEO of Electra, told Tectonic that the money will help the company work toward pre-production and […]
Earlier this month (yes, it’s been a long month), President Trump signed a few executive orders aimed at revamping defense acquisition and production that sent the defense tech community abuzz. The President ordered SecDef Hegseth to create a plan to speed up acquisition using existing authorities and prioritizing commercial solutions. He also called for major […]
We knew that Ukraine had poured a ton of money and resources into domestic drone development since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, but until last week we didn’t know just how much. Well, now we do—and it’s major. According to data released by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense last week, the country spent over $2.5B […]
The Palantir mafia is expanding. Yesterday, autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) company Vatn Systems announced a strategic partnership with the data giant, which will help it to scale up and streamline its manufacturing capabilities. The company will use Palantir’s Foundry system to digitize the way it works and use artificial intelligence to improve everything from production […]
Looks like Saronic really is trying to build the shipyard of the future. Yesterday, the unmanned surface vessel (USV) company and 8VC darling announced that it’s acquired Gulf Craft, a shipbuilder on the Louisiana coast. The company also unveiled a new 150-foot medium USV (MUSV) called Marauder, which will be prototyped out of Gulf Craft’s […]
Looks like Astro Mechanica is really speeding things up. This morning, the supersonic engine and aircraft manufacturing company announced that it has raised $27.1M in funding, co-led by a16z, Lowercarbon, and Giant Step, with significant participation from Alumni and Voyager. Astro Mechanica CEO Ian Brooke told Tectonic in an exclusive interview that the funding will […]
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: Maritime autonomy is all the rage. Late last week, autonomous shipbuilder Blue Water Autonomy emerged from stealth and announced $14M in seed funding led by Eclipse, Riot, and Impatient Ventures. The company is building a larger-profile, fully autonomous warship for the US Navy that can stay […]
If you read this newsletter regularly, you’ll know that Anduril has had a hell of a year. In January, the company announced that it’s building a massive, cutting-edge production facility called Arsenal-1, and has since secured major DoD contracts for everything from cUAS, to an Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS), to rocket motors. And that’s […]
For those of you who’ve taken a relaxing vacation under a rock for the past week: on April 2, Trump unveiled sweeping, massive tariffs on nearly all imports to the United States, sending markets into a tailspin. Yesterday, Trump paused most of those tariffs for 90 days but maintained a general 10% tariff on all […]
