The Pentagon's Laser Weapons Have a Maintenance Problem, Not a Startup Funding Problem

Disruptive just closed a $10 billion fund aimed at AI, defense, and software startups, with plans to deploy roughly $1 billion checks into ten later-stage companies, according to B…

If you came looking for the AUKUS Pillar II story this week, the sources aren't there yet. What's actually happening in defense tech procurement right now is quieter and, in some w…

The Missile Defense Agency just handed California startup Long Wall $75 million to finish testing its Cyclops interceptor. The twist is in the fine print: Long Wall is matching tha…

Here's the number that matters: ten companies, up to $7 billion, one acquisition vehicle. On September 28, the Pentagon's Joint Interagency Task Force 401 announced a slate of inde…

Ask any investor who's been watching defense tech since 2023 and they'll tell you the same thing: unmanned surface vessels were supposed to be the easy win. Cheap hulls, commercial…

Most Pentagon solicitations read like wish lists. The DIU's new unmanned surface vessel challenge reads like a term sheet. Sprint 2 of the Suitable Warfighting Adaptive Payloads pr…

A Saronic-built unmanned boat called Corsair has reportedly already been used in strikes against an Iranian submarine and a ship-maintenance facility, according to Breaking Defense…

The Army just admitted, on the record, that its flagship command-and-control modernization effort didn't work the first time it left the lab. That's not a scandal. It's the most us…

Lockheed Martin didn't write Hadrian a check. It gave the startup floor space. Under the deal detailed by Defense News, Hadrian is installing 24 automated machines inside Lockheed'…

Here's the number that should stop every defense investor cold: Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told attendees at AUSA's Project Agincourt panel last week that the Pentagon is de…

Shield AI just put its own money where its mouth is. The Navy's $150 million modification to its X-BAT Other Transaction agreement came with a catch: Shield AI had to match it doll…

Startups trying to sell software to the Pentagon have spent years complaining about the same thing: it's not the technology that kills deals, it's the paperwork. A company can buil…

Everyone in defense tech wants to build the drone. Almost nobody wants to build the supply chain that feeds it. That's what makes Gallatin AI's $50 million Series A, led by 8VC and…

If you'd read the assigned brief for this issue, you'd expect a story about Palantir tightening its grip on Pentagon AI work while smaller rivals scramble for scraps. That's not wh…

Here's the uncomfortable truth about Golden Dome that nobody in the program office wants to say out loud: the architecture is being questioned by the same Senate committee that con…

If you were waiting for Special Operations Command to spell out next quarter's priorities in a batch of small-business research awards, you'd have had a long wait this week. SOCOM…

Anduril just did something no venture-backed defense startup has done at this scale: it agreed to eat the execution risk on a shipyard. The company said Tuesday it will spend $3.7…

Here's the gap nobody's pricing in: the Pentagon is standing up new four-star commands for drones and robotics while the actual money to build them sits frozen behind a government…

Everyone in this sector loves to talk about the capital flood into defense tech. Fewer people want to talk about where that capital refuses to go. A new study from the Aerospace In…