PentagonPolicy

Cleaning House

The purge continues. On Friday, President Trump abruptly fired Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr. as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Trump wrote on Truth Social that the decorated fighter pilot “is a fine gentleman and an outstanding leader, and I wish a great future for him and his family.” Trump nominated Air […]

PolicyTech

Three Years of War

In case anyone thought the war in Ukraine was over, well, it’s not. Yesterday, on the eve of the third anniversary of the war, Russia launched 267 attack drones towards the country in its largest attack to date. Ukraine managed to down or jam most of them, according to Kyiv, but damage was reported in […]

PentagonPolicy

DOGE Comes for the DoD

Welp. Looks like DOGE has indeed made it to the DoD. Elon Musk’s efficiency czars arrived at the Pentagon on Tuesday and asked for lists of all of the military’s probationary employees. (The services were given until EOD Tuesday to provide them.) While it was previously unclear whether military employees would be part of the […]

InvestmentTech

Saronic Raises $600M at $4B Valuation

Let’s play a game. What company is less than three years old, builds unmanned vessels, and is worth $4B? Saronic, as it turns out. The Texas-based USV company announced today that it has raised a $600M Series C, quadrupling its valuation from last summer.  The round was led by Elad Gil, with participation from General […]

Tech

Zephr Wins $1.47M SBIR Grant

What if we told you you were walking around, every day, with a critical piece of battlefield tech in your pocket? Well, according to Zephr, you are.  The Colorado-based company has developed software that transforms mobile phones into Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) jamming detectors, capable of geolocating sources of electronic warfare (EW). Today, it […]

InvestmentPolicy

The State of European Defense Innovation

In case you missed it, Europe is reeling.  On a whirlwind tour of the continent last week, SecDef Pete Hegseth and VP JD Vance openly questioned the transatlantic security agreements that have underpinned European defense since WWII. Meanwhile, Trump is pushing forward with Ukraine peace talks that exclude Ukraine, along with all of Washington’s European allies. Then there was that hour-and-a-half-long call with […]

Policy

Big Bucks

So much for spending cuts. The Republican-led Senate Budget Committee pushed through its $340B budget reconciliation proposal yesterday, with $150B in additional funding for defense, even as a separate proposal moved its way through the House.  In terms of defense, the proposal focuses on: The budget resolution points to the threats posed by China, Iran, […]

Investment

EnCharge AI Closes $100M Series B

Much of the world might have been gobsmacked by DeepSeek and AI’s Sputnik moment, but EnCharge AI has been thinking about how to make artificial intelligence more efficient and more powerful for years.  The company’s proprietary analog in-memory chip—developed initially out of a Princeton lab by CEO Naveen Verma and his team—is 20X more efficient and 9X […]

Tech

From Paris, With Love

This morning, European defense company Helsing announced a twofer from the AI action summit in Paris: Not bad for a Monday. Drones for democracy: Helsing was founded in Germany in 2021 by Gundbert Scherf, Niklas Köhler, and Torsten Reil, as AI and nontraditional defense companies across the pond were on the rise. The AI software company […]

InvestmentTech

Anduril’s Winning Streak

Palmer Luckey just can’t stop winning. Over the weekend, CNBC reported that Anduril is reportedly in talks to raise up to $2.5B at a $28B pre-money valuation. Sources familiar with the deal told Tectonic that the round was led by Peter Thiel’s Founder’s Fund, which coughed up a $1B check. The term sheet was reportedly signed on […]