Good morning. We’re baaaaack. Yes, the fact that we’re in your inbox on a Tuesday means that we’ve officially ramped up to five days a week. Who’s excited?
P.S. If you want to thank us properly, you could nominate Tectonic for a Nobel Peace Prize – seems to be all the rage these days. Today’s newsletter:
🛥️ HavocAI and Lockheed Martin Team Up
🛰️ Rise8 to Build FORGE for the Space Force |
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HavocAI and Lockheed Martin Team Up
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Looks like the primes still have something going for them after all. This morning, unmanned surface vessel (USV) company HavocAI announced that it’s teaming up with Lockheed Martin to beef up its medium USV fleet.
HavocAI CEO Paul Lwin told Tectonic that the most critical part of the partnership will be integrating Lockheed’s advanced sensors and payloads (read: things that go boom) onto his company’s 100-foot vessel, which it plans to deliver by the end of the year.
“[Lockheed] understands what it takes to take a surface vessel and make it into an integrated weapon system,” Lwin said, “We will build the vessels and we will put our autonomy stack on it, and they will help us integrate the weapons systems.”
Speedy quick: HavocAI has scaled up at a pretty impressive clip. The company was founded in 2024, and by the end of the year had boats in the water and $11M in funding, led by Trousdale and Scout Ventures. |
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The company kicked things off with the 14-foot Rampage USV, a super-low-cost sea drone that can be deployed in swarms in vast bodies of water like the Indo-Pacific.
- Earlier this year, they unveiled the 38-foot Seahound and integrated Havoc’s autonomy stack on a 42-foot KaiKoa ASV, built by R&D firm PacMar.
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Lwin says that the company plans to have a 100-foot USV in the water by December, and they’re exploring whether they can go even bigger—if that’s what the Navy needs.
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Dozens of Havoc’s vessels are already deployed around the world with the DoD, and according to Lwin the company has participated in 36 live demos. |
- Rampage was deployed as Project Convergence and Silent Swarm.
- Earlier this year, DoD officials watched as the company remotely controlled 25 vessels scattered all over the world—everywhere from the North Atlantic to the Indo-Pacific—from a single control center in San Diego.
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The bigger the better: As the Navy considers how to build out a hybrid fleet, it has put a lot of emphasis on medium and large surface vessels. |
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Earlier this year, the service announced that the M-USV and L-USV programs will be combined into a single program.
- The Big Beautiful Bill—signed into law on Friday—allocated a cool $2.1B to medium USVs and $1.5B to small USVs.
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The Pentagon’s FY26 budget request also calls for $1.7B for “on the water autonomous systems,” which we’re taking to mean USVs.
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Lwin said this was a clear demand signal from the Pentagon—the Navy wants bigger ships that can carry more serious payloads, travel further at higher speeds, and—hopefully—survive longer. “We were working on this 100-foot vessel even five months ago,” he said, “But when the House started working on the reconciliation bill.. and we found out there was going to be $2.1 billion, we accelerated it.” He added that they’re already testing the big ‘ol sea drone in the water.
Major leagues: In case you didn't know, Lockheed has a pretty firm chokehold on US military contracts. Last year, the company netted over $50B in government contracts—nearly 75% of Lockheed’s $71B revenue. The company has tens of billions of dollars in contracts with the Navy alone. |
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In Partnership With Sayari |
TODAY: Join Our First Tectonic Webinar!
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As global dynamics shift, industries must move from just-in-time supply chains to resilient, risk-aware models that account for strategic competitors and malign actors. Supply chain risk is no longer isolated—it’s operational risk, and someone must own it.
Our first Tectonic webinar in partnership with Sayari will explore the growing responsibility of industry to proactively monitor their own supply chains, identify vulnerabilities, and decide whether to self-report or rely on government oversight.
Join us to examine emerging expectations, the balance between self-governance and regulation, and actionable strategies to strengthen supply chain resilience. |
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Rise8 Awarded FORGE Software Contract |
Looks like Rise8 is, well, on the rise. Earlier today, the Tampa-based software delivery startup announced that it won a contract with the US Space Force’s Future Operationally Resilient Ground Evolution (FORGE) program to provide continuous software delivery capabilities. In layman’s terms, that means the company will be responsible for building out the software pipeline that helps the Force track and target missiles. Sounds fun. FORGEing Ahead: The Future Operationally Resilient Ground Evolution (FORGE) program has been on a bumpy ride since its rollout in 2020.
The project aims to upgrade the Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS), the Space Force’s legacy missile warning system, and integrate it with next-gen platforms. That, however, has proven more difficult than it sounds (and it admittedly sounds pretty difficult). Let’s take a ride on the FORGE strugglebus: |
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2020: RTX won a $197M contract to build FORGE’s backbone, the Mission Data Processing Application Framework (MDPAF), for both SBIRS and next-gen Overhead Persistent Infrared (OPIR)—infrared sensor-equipped satellites that continuously monitor the Earth from space—systems. Put simply, it would process data from SBIRS, Next-Gen OPIR, and the Missile Track Custody Demonstration (TCD).
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2023: That proved to be too big a project. In 2023, FORGE was singled out in a GAO report on delays to major weapons programs. The GAO report estimated that FORGE wouldn’t be operational until the end of 2026, so the whole thing was broken up into four parts. In an unsurprising turn of events, the FORGE C2 system is estimated not to be operational until the end of 2028.
- 2024: FORGE was deployed at Buckley Space Force Base, where MDPAF is used to process live OPIR data.
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2025: The Space Systems Command (SSC) awarded a bunch of contracts for FORGE’s four main hardware and software “thrusts.” Among those were a $151M contract to BAE for a prototype of FORGE C2 software and a $244M contract to Lockheed, Northrop, and Peraton for FORGE’s Relay Ground Stations.
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As of now, the project is expected to total $2.4B. Good thing that reconciliation bill containing a big chunk of the Space Force’s $40B budget passed. Enter Rise8: As you can imagine, a constellation of missile-warning satellites across legacy and next-gen systems produces a ton of data, and that requires a ton of software. That’s where Rise8 comes in.
Put simply, the company’s pitch is that it makes software that makes delivering and integrating new software more efficient. Bit of a Russian doll of software, but bear with us.
In particular, the company specializes in continuous Authority to Operate (cATO), or software that allows government systems to remain secure and operational while being developed, updated, and improved. Given the number of satellites, companies, and various systems involved in the big fat FORGE program, that could come in handy. |
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Looks like Ukraine will receive more weapons after all.
- SASC has started its NDAA markup.
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HASC is backing the cuts to the F-35 program.
- Ukraine and Denmark inked a deal to produce weapons for Ukraine on Danish soil.
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The UK has officially kicked off the UK Defence Innovation organization.
- Firestorm was named the top innovator at an IQT & SVB pitch event. Vatn Systems and Smack Technologies also did well.
- Saildrone successfully concluded its participation in NATO’s Task Force X.
- MyDefence won a $26M cUAS contract from the US Army.
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The Navy is working on a plan for multi-packed torpedoes in the Indo-Pacific.
- Skyeton and Prevail have launched a UK-Ukraine joint venture for drones.
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200 Marines have been deployed to Florida to support ICE.
- Australia is buying $1.39B-worth of AMRAAM missiles from the US
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HIMARS are going hypersonic.
- Neros plans to expand drone production to 10,000 a month by the end of the year.
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The Air Force carried out a “crucial” unmanned fighter test.
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A Saildrone Voyager in the Baltic Sea. Image: Saildrone via NATO Maritime Command. |
Saildrone announced this week that they successfully completed NATO's Task Force X in the Baltic, maintaining "a 100% persistent presence on station, delivering 24/7 wide-area surveillance and real-time maritime domain awareness." |
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