Tectonic

TERN and Sandtable announced that they’re teaming up after the exercise to plug Sandtable’s mission planning capabilities—especially its geospatial mapping— into TERN’s navigation stack. tectonicdefense.com/exclusive-tern…

Defense communications and mission-systems company Ultra I&C announced that it’s sending its Archer troposcatter beyond-line-of-sight (BLOS) comms system up to the Arctic for operational trials with the Canadian Armed Forces. tectonicdefense.com/ultra-ic-heads…

Less than a year after dropping a cool $4.1B to acquire BlueHalo, @aerovironment is back with another acquisition. The company snapped up California-based drone manufacturing and design firm @ESAeroUS for $200M. tectonicdefense.com/av-snaps-up-dr…

Flight autonomy hotshot Merlin officially started trading on the Nasdaq as $MRLN after merging with a SPAC called Inflection Point Acquisition Corp. IV and raising about $200M in proceeds. The deal valued Merlin at $800M pre-money. tectonicdefense.com/merlin-goes-pu…

Ukrainian UAV software company @getswarmer officially IPO’d on the @Nasdaq as $SWMR. The company—which builds the software brain that allows drones to operate as a swarm—is seeking $15M with the IPO (3,000,000 shares at an initial price of $5 apiece). tectonicdefense.com/swarmer-goes-p…

Pittsburgh-based @geckorobotics announced a five-year, $71M IDIQ contract with the US Navy to deploy its wall-crawling robots and AI maintenance software to 18 ships in the Pacific Fleet—at least to start. tectonicdefense.com/gecko-secures-…

The US Army announced (in a fairly chill contract roundup) that it’s issued a 10-year contract worth up to $20B—yes, billion with a B—to “consolidate the procurement and management of the company’s commercially available technologies.” tectonicdefense.com/anduril-scores…

Between the Pentagon backing a $400M investment in MP Materials, a $1.4B deal with rare-earth magnet-maker @VulcanElements, and Korea Zinc’s $7.4B refinery, companies up and down the critical mineral supply chain had a pretty big year in 2025. tectonicdefense.com/australian-rar…

Everyone’s favorite teeny tiny defense startup @anduriltech announced that their Dive-XL autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) was tapped by the Defense Innovation Unit and the US Navy for the Combat Autonomous Maritime Platform (CAMP) drone sub program. tectonicdefense.com/the-navy-and-d…

Military logistics startup Rune Technologies announced that they’ve scored a $2M Direct to Phase II SBIR contract with the US Army in support of the service’s PORTAL (Predict, Optimize, Recommend, and Track for Adaptive Logistics) program. tectonicdefense.com/icymi-rune-sco…

Well, @Nominal_io is certainly having quite the past few weeks. The Austin-based testing startup announced that they’re officially teaming up with ground autonomy hotshot @ForterraDrive. tectonicdefense.com/exclusive-nomi…

The UK Ministry of Defence awarded British unmanned surface vessel (USV) startup @KrakenTechGroup a £12.3M ($16.5M) contract to supply the Royal Navy with 20 of its super speedy K3 Scout drone boats. tectonicdefense.com/kraken-secures…

.@AronditeTech announced a “multi-million” pound contract with the UK Ministry of Defence to deploy its Cobalt software across the British Army’s Very High Readiness Force. tectonicdefense.com/arondite-secur…

Rhode Island-based unmanned surface vehicle (USV) startup @HavocAi_USV announced that it has acquired not one but two companies—heavy-lift drone-maker Mavrik and industrial vehicle autonomy startup Teleo—to take its autonomy software multi-domain. tectonicdefense.com/exclusive-havo…

Manufacturing is so back, baby. Well, at least if AI and defense are involved. @IsembardGroup announced it has raised a $50M Series A round led by Union Square Ventures to accelerate its plan to open 25 factories by the end of the year. tectonicdefense.com/isembard-raise…

.@ScoutVentures announced that it’s closed a $125M Fund V to invest in tech companies that are building “artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, space infrastructure, cyber, quantum, and advanced power technologies.” tectonicdefense.com/scout-ventures…

Fresh off raising $5.3M in January, R2Wireless announced that it’s tacked on another $5M in a new round led by Origin Ventures, with participation from Spring Rock Capital, Corner Ventures, and Exitfund, bringing total funding to $13M. tectonicdefense.com/exclusive-r2-w…

Canadian defense tech startup @DominionDynamic kicked things up a notch, announcing plans to invest $37M ($50M CAD) to kickstart development of Scout, their Collaborative Combat Aircraft purpose-built for the Arctic. tectonicdefense.com/dominion-dynam…

FPV hotshot @OrqaFPV announced that they’ve raised a €12.7M ($14.7M) Series A led by Expeditions Ventures and signed a teaming agreement with Texas-based @RRAD_TX to expand its presence in the US. tectonicdefense.com/exclusive-orqa…

Welp, the @anduriltech mafia and @Nominal_io are making things super-extra-official. The testing startup announced that it’s raised a whopping $80M “acceleration round” (their term) led by @foundersfund, valuing the company at $1B. tectonicdefense.com/nominal-raises…