defense-technology
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Hexagon US Federal: The Work Between Data and Decisions
A map is only useful if someone can act on it. From Marine Corps dispatch to navigation under interference, Hexagon US Federal built its business in that difficult gap - and now operates as Octave Federal.
Infleqtion puts atoms to work
A clock on a submarine. A computer built from trapped atoms. Infleqtion is turning the same strange physics into products with very different deadlines.
8VC builds its own bets
Most venture firms wait for a pitch. 8VC sometimes starts with a broken industry, finds the people who understand it, and helps build the company itself.
AV and the power of thinking small
A pedal-powered airplane, a drone in a backpack, a helicopter on Mars. AV built a business by shrinking the machine. Its next test is running a much bigger company.
Cubic makes the complicated disappear
A subway tap. A fighter-pilot debrief. Cubic builds the machinery behind both - and its hardest projects reveal what simplicity really costs.
Leonardo DRS builds the power behind the platform
A thermal sight. A rugged computer. A submarine motor. Leonardo DRS has built a business inside the machines that get all the attention.
Booz Allen Hamilton takes AI off the grid
A century-old consultancy is putting AI in orbit and buying its way deeper into defense technology. Its real business is making new tools work where the usual assumptions fall apart.
Forterra takes the driver out. Then the real work begins.
A self-driving vehicle is only the start. Forterra is building the software, communications and controls that turn an empty driving seat into a working mission.
The military has a connection problem. Sigma builds the missing links.
A sensor can see everything and still tell the wrong person nothing. Sigma Defense builds the software and networks that help military information reach the people who need it.
Castelion’s real weapon is the factory.
Blackbeard flies at hypersonic speed. Castelion’s bigger bet is that America can build enough of them to matter - and afford to keep building.
Quantum Systems learned to fly without the signal
A German drone maker found its hardest engineering lesson in Ukraine. Now it is using that experience to connect autonomous machines across air, land and sea.
Forge Institute puts cyber defense to work in Arkansas
A military career, a water utility, a promising startup: Forge Institute connects people who rarely share a classroom. Its wager is that national security gets stronger when those introductions lead to actual work.
Applied Intuition sells the road you can repeat
A late lane change reveals the business behind Applied Intuition: turn the messy physical world into tests engineers can run again. Now the company is moving from the simulator into the vehicle itself.
Venus Aerospace wanted a faster plane. The engine found its own customers.
A rocket engine built for a shorter trip across the Pacific has become the main event. Venus Aerospace is turning rotating detonation into a propulsion business for defense and space.
AIRCO made vodka from CO₂. Now it wants to move the refinery.
A bottle proved the chemistry. Aircraft, boats and military vehicles tested the proposition. AIRCO’s next wager is that making fuel where it is needed can be worth more than shipping it there.
Saronic’s next big product is a shipyard
The autonomous boat maker is spending billions to solve a decidedly physical problem: America needs more ships, and someone has to build them.
Easy Aerial’s bright idea: keep the drone on a leash
Easy Aerial builds autonomous drones that can draw power through a tether, launch from a box, and watch over sites or moving vehicles. Its wager is that security teams often need a longer look more than a longer flight.
Dedrone makes the sky harder to sneak through
A fence is a splendid invention until the intruder flies over it. Dedrone turns the air above airports, stadiums and cities into something security teams can finally read.
Compound Eye teaches machines to see without giving themselves away
Ordinary cameras, some careful geometry, and an unusual customer: Compound Eye is turning passive 3D vision into a way for vehicles to navigate when GPS cannot be trusted.
Research Innovations sells the hard part: getting defense tech into the field
A $96.9 million Army contract puts RII’s Dragonfly sensors on a new procurement path. Behind the hardware is a company built around an awkward truth: useful defense technology has to survive the journey from demonstration to daily use.
MORSE makes autonomy answer to the people using it
A Cambridge engineering company is tackling the awkward distance between a clever algorithm and a system soldiers can use. Its work runs from airdrop software to aircraft that borrow energy from the wind.
Pratt Miller: The Race Shop That Learned to Build Robots
A failed damper, a moving target and a $115 million acquisition tell the story of Pratt Miller. The Michigan engineering company has carried its racing habits into defense and mobility - with results more interesting than a trophy cabinet.
MAK builds worlds where being wrong is part of the training
An aircraft can be certain of its position - and still be wrong. MAK’s simulation software turns that awkward possibility into something crews can rehearse, while helping separate training systems inhabit the same world.
Red Cat Holdings and the art of getting bought by the Army
A shared battery, a sold-off hobby business, and a factory full of ambition: how Red Cat turned small drones into a defense business where winning the order is only the beginning.
FTI Defense and the Art of Keeping Things Running
A radar, a repair crew, a mountain of incompatible data. FTI Defense has built a business around the awkward space between owning military equipment and knowing whether it will work.
EOIR and the Trouble With Seeing Everything
EOIR built sensors, software, and the engineering in between for America’s defense customers. Its journey into Polaris Alpha and Parsons shows why collecting more information is only the beginning.
Athenix Solutions Group and the Case for the Middleweight
Athenix assembled specialists in software, intelligence, and mission rehearsal around a bet on the middle of the defense market. Its September 2026 acquisition by Detroit Defense gives that bet a new setting.
SeeByte makes rival robots work together
Different vehicles. Different navies. One shared mission. The Edinburgh software company has built its business around the awkward business of getting underwater machines to cooperate.
CRFS Built a Map for the Invisible Battlefield
Its rugged blue-and-white boxes do not transmit. They listen - then turn crowded radio noise into locations, alerts and evidence for militaries, regulators and intelligence teams.
How Windward Taught Ships to Tell on Themselves - and Built a £216 Million Maritime Intelligence Business
Two former naval officers started by chasing illegal fishing and discovered the buyers were scarce. They kept the data engine, changed the customer, and turned ships that go dark, spoof locations or swap identities into a legible business signal.