missile-defense
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nLogic makes defense systems work together. Its employees own the company.
Missile defense depends on the unglamorous art of making complicated things cooperate. This Huntsville engineering company applies a second kind of integration to the people doing the work: shared ownership.
The Liverpool radar shop that turned a $151 billion missile-defense door into an open one
A 58-person shop in upstate New York builds software-defined radar - and just landed on a defense contract worth up to $151 billion.
Long Wall
Long Wall is a Long Beach, California defense manufacturer building cost-effective, mass-producible missile defense systems. Founded in 2017 as the rocket startup ABL Space Systems, it rebranded to Long Wall in February 2025 and pivoted from commercial satellite launch to defense, repurposing years of launch-vehicle engineering into interceptors, target rockets, and deployable ground infrastructure. Its lineup includes Cyclops, a surface-launched exoatmospheric interceptor; RSX, a low-cost liquid booster for flight testing and threat replication; and Ironwood, rapidly deployable ground support equipment. The company's thesis is that modern threats - hypersonic weapons, growing nuclear arsenals, and raid sizes in the hundreds - have outrun the price and production volume of legacy interceptors, so defense needs magazine depth measured in thousands, not dozens.
Wardstone
Wardstone is a Y Combinator F25 defense startup building a global constellation of satellites equipped with space-based interceptors to kinetically destroy hypersonic and ballistic missiles. Founded by brothers Sebastian and Tobias Fischer, the company is pursuing America's Golden Dome initiative - a layered missile defense system that can engage threats in space before they reach US soil. With a $5M seed round and three successful automated intercept demonstrations during YC, Wardstone is positioning itself as a next-generation missile defense contractor targeting a $40B/year market.