Editor’s Brief¹

Last Week I released a defense editorial on what I see as a growing issue in the ecosystem: LinkedIn critiques with no solutions being provided. Stop complaining, start building.

This week, can the US compete with a stable, well funded, authoritarian regime (see China)?

Mach Industries Founder Ethan Thornton thinks so. And he’s trying to prove that with Forge and thousands of unmanned long range strike platforms.

As always, your feedback shapes our coverage—reply directly with insights or questions.

Signal Brief: Mach Industries - A New Model for Peacetime Manufacturing

Mach Industries is building a vertically integrated manufacturing network to produce autonomous systems at high volume. Their focus: attritable weapons that can launch from unprepared terrain, be replenished rapidly, and avoid reliance on fragile global supply chains.

Origins & Vision

Founded in 2022 by Ethan Thornton, who left MIT at 19, Mach started with a vision to build new kinds of weapons, and a supply chain that could keep pace. The company’s initial focus was hydrogen propulsion, drawn by its energy density and tactical flexibility. But after a significant safety incident in 2023 and deeper evaluation of hydrogen’s operational risks, Mach pivoted to more conventional systems that could reach fielding faster.

Today, Mach’s model centers on vertically integrated production: in-house engines, sensors, and manufacturing designed to build quickly, adapt rapidly, and survive conflict.

Their flagship facility, Forge Huntington, serves as a prototype for a retoolable, distributed production network. Each Forge is designed to switch between product lines and operate semi-independently, forming the backbone of a decentralized industrial mesh.

Key Takeaways

• Distributed Production: Forge’s retoolable model is built for speed, agility, and resilience.

• Vertical Integration: Internal development of sensors and propulsion reduces dependencies.

• Policy Fluency: Hires like former HASC Staff Director Paul Arcangeli suggest a serious effort to navigate defense bureaucracy.

• Economics of Scale: Mach’s model aims for thousands of units monthly, targeting unit cost reductions and repeatable, high-throughput production.

Tech Radar:

Viper - Vertical Takeoff Precision Missile

A VTOL cruise missile designed for company-through-brigade-level operations.
Range: 290 km
Warhead: 10+kg

Key Capabilities

• GPS-denied navigation via onboard AI and RF sensing

• Vertical launch from unprepared terrain

• Multi-spectral autonomous targeting

• Low-cost manufacturing optimized for scale

Glide

Mach’s long-range glider is launched from stratospheric platforms for deep strike missions. Designed for low radar and IR signature, current development includes AI-powered visual navigation without GPS.

Stratos

Stratos is a balloon- or aircraft-deployed platform offering theater-scale comms and ISR. Designed to complement Viper and Glide, it operates above 60,000 ft and acts as a persistent relay or surveillance node—an “in-air satellite” for denied or congested environments.

Forge - Modular Factory Network

Forge Huntington, a 115,000 sq ft facility in Southern California, serves as the template for Mach’s production vision. Digitally connected, reconfigurable, and built for autonomy, it’s designed to produce systems quickly, then retool for the next line. The long-term play: a mesh of facilities hardened against supply shocks.

Market Signals

Funding & Growth

• Total Funding: $186.7M across three rounds

• Latest Round: $102M Series B (June 2025)

• Notable Investors: Sequoia Capital, Bedrock, Khosla Ventures, DCVC, Marque Ventures

• Valuation: $470 million post-money

Contracts & Government Traction

Mach has secured multiple contracts to include:

• AAL BAA Strategic Strike (Sep ‘24) - $1.5M contract with Army Futures Command for Strategic Strike development with successful flight tests completed by January 2025

• Air Force SBIR (May ‘24) - $73,450 PO for GPS/GNSS-denied navigation development for the Glide platform

• Air Force SBIR (Feb ‘24) - $109,938 PO for Tactical Fuel Production System for Agile Combat Employment (ACE) Support Systems

• Heven Drones partnership (Mar ‘25)

Looking Ahead

Yes Mach is building drones, but they are also proposing a new way to manufacture at speed. The Forge model is an interesting prototype for a digitally connected, reconfigurable factory designed to produce, adapt, and survive under wartime conditions.

But replicating Forge across the country means solving some extremely tough problems: secure communications, precise quality control, CMMC compliance, and logistics under pressure. These are all solvable problems, but can’t just be funded away.  They demand operational discipline and a wartime mindset most peacetime institutions don’t have.

Which is where I see an interesting second opportunity emerge.

Across cities like Los Angeles, Bakersfield, and Phoenix, thousands of small machine shops still form the backbone of the DIB. But they’re increasingly owned by baby boomers nearing retirement. Most are undercapitalized, under-digitized, and vulnerable to closure or acquisition by private equity firms with no long-term interest in national security

So instead of building entirely new facilities, shops could be acquired, modernized, and networked as a national prototyping layer.  Think applied industrial policy meets venture incubation. The goal wouldn’t be to turn every shop into a Forge clone or financial arbitrage, but to create a mesh of responsive infrastructure optimized for speed, precision, and compliance.

Not every shop will make the leap. Cultural gaps, legacy workflows, and inconsistent standards remain real challenges. But if even a fraction of them can be upgraded, it could unlock faster development, lower the barrier to entry, and extend Mach’s thesis beyond its own facilities.

Challenges

• Quality Control at Scale – Maintaining precision across a distributed network isn’t easy

• Regulatory Burden – ITAR, CMMC/cybersecurity, and defense compliance create overhead

• Talent Constraints – Competing for engineering talent in California while preserving startup speed

Bottom Line:

Mach is proving that vertically integrated, distributed production can work for specific systems. Whether that scales into a national model or collapses under the same fragmentation that hollowed out U.S. manufacturing remains to be seen.

As I noted last week: readiness isn’t cheap. And it’s rarely easy. To borrow from Elon:

If we want to move faster, build more, and broaden who gets to contribute, we’ll need to start challenging some of the old assumptions about how defense production is supposed to work.

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1  The views expressed in this newsletter are my own and do not represent the views of the U.S. Navy, Department of Defense, or any government agency. Mention of companies, technologies, or products is not an endorsement or recommendation. The content is for informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice.