military-logistics
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Canada Gave Defence $51.7 Billion. The Arctic Asked for a Better Plan.
Canada's defence machine is getting bigger, more digital and more Arctic. Its most useful lesson is not how to spend more - it is how to admit when an old plan no longer survives contact with the North.
The Austin Drone Company Betting the Air Force Will Ditch the $30,000 Helicopter Hour
Skyways flies cargo drones nobody steers - no joystick, no remote pilot - between air bases and out to oil rigs. Now it wants to turn a hand-built aircraft into a production line.
Poseidon Aerospace
Poseidon Aerospace is a San Francisco startup building unmanned cargo aircraft designed to move heavy loads to places without runways. Founded in 2024 by ex-Amazon engineer David Zagaynov and ex-Lockheed Martin engineer Parker Tenney, the company is developing two purpose-built autonomous platforms - Egret, a short takeoff and landing aircraft, and Heron, an amphibious seaplane - each engineered to carry up to two tons roughly 1,500 miles. Backed by an $11M seed round led by Tamarack Global, Poseidon aims to slash the cost-per-ton-mile of air logistics for both commercial feeder routes and contested military supply missions, with first full-scale flight tests targeted for mid-2026.
Grid Aero
Grid Aero is a Palo Alto aerospace and defense startup building the Lifter-Lite, an autonomous, long-range, heavy-lift cargo drone designed to move thousands of pounds across thousands of miles for military and commercial customers. Founded in 2024 by Arthur Dubois - a veteran of Joby Aviation and Xwing - the company is targeting contested logistics in the Pacific theater and remote civilian routes, with a deliberately simple airframe and AI-enhanced autonomy.
Rune Technologies
Rune Technologies is an Arlington, Virginia defense software company building TyrOS, an AI-enabled, edge-first logistics platform for the U.S. military. Founded in 2024 by Anduril alumni David Tuttle and Peter Goldsborough, Rune aims to replace the spreadsheets and whiteboards that still run military sustainment with predictive software that forecasts supply needs, recommends transport, and keeps working in communications-denied, contested environments. It has raised more than $30 million and deployed with the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps.