Editor’s Brief

Last Week we profiled Antares Industries, a startup developing small modular reactors to power forward bases and edge infrastructure.

This week, I pulled together a summer wrap up for the long weekend:  The top 3 companies from the past 31 issues, where they’ll matter most, and some things to watch this fall.

We passed 360 subscribers across the defense ecosystem: from founders (Chariot Defense, Firestorm Labs, Skyfi), to funders (Leonid, Scout VC, BVVC), and fighters (all service branches).

Keep sending it along to anyone who you think could benefit.

Top 3 Company Signals

1. Castelion - Hypersonic Missiles

Why they matter: They’re closing a widening gap in U.S. deterrence. China continues to expand its first-strike capabilities with potentially global reach.

What’s Happened Since: The U.S. Army is testing Castelion’s Blackbeard Hypersonic missile. They conducted their first flight test on a DoD range. Hired Captain Greg Zettler (Ret.), former PM for the Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike program

What to watch this fall: Continued flight testing. A potential Navy CPS program integration? Hiring scale-up as they transition toward production readiness.

2. Regent Defense - Littoral Transportation

Why they matter: Island hopping logistics in contested environments require mobility independent of runways or deep-water ports. Seagliders offer a new middle ground between ships and aircraft.
What’s happened since: Regent and Fairlead announced a partnership to deliver Seaglider solutions to the Navy and Marine Corps. 50% of the steel is now up at their 255,000 sq. ft. factory in Rhode Island. Our full interview with Billy Thalheimer, Co founder and CEO.
What to watch this fall: Factory completion, production ramp-up, and the first Viceroy flight. 

3. Rune Technologies - Frontier Logistics

Why they matter: As battlefields grow dense with data and logistics complexity, Rune is building the connective tissue that keeps order amid chaos. (It took 74 C-5s to deploy one Patriot battalion in peacetime.)
What’s happened since: Rune signed partnerships with the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab and a CRADA with the U.S. Army to advance logistics data standards. They also raised a $24M Series A led by Human Capital.
What to watch this fall: Software rollouts, hiring growth, and Indo-Pacific partnerships.

Signals Gained: China is the Pacing threat, not Russia

Across 31 issues, the common thread is the same: Ukraine is dominating the headlines, China is dominating the war planning. Inside the Pentagon, procurement priorities and strategic documents all point toward one overriding concern: preparing for a high-end fight in the Indo-Pacific. 

For much of the 20th century, the PLA was a massive but outdated land force. That era is over. Today’s PLA is a rapidly modernizing, multi-domain force with clear objectives:

• By 2027: Have the capability to seize Taiwan by force.

• By 2035: Fully modernize the armed forces.

• By 2049: Build a true “world-class” military

Beijing increasingly rejects international rules when they don’t serve its interests, from militarizing the South China Sea to dismantling Hong Kong’s political autonomy.

And through surveillance tech, AI tools, and state-backed media, China is exporting a model of authoritarian control that challenges democratic norms worldwide.

The U.S. can’t just prepare for a single war; it must retool for an era of permanent competition.  One where industrial capacity, alliances, and innovation ecosystems matter as much as ships, missiles, or bases.

Market Signals

• 2025 Def Tech Funding: ~$10B across 111 rounds in 2025

• Largest Rounds: Anduril Series G led by Founders Fund- $2.5B
   Helsing Series D led by Prima Materia - $693M
   Saronic Series C led by Elad Gil- $600M

Looking Ahead: Fall Preview

• New Signals: NATO
  This fall, we’ll expand coverage into Europe’s defense tech ecosystem. At the 2025 NATO Summit in The Hague, Allies committed to investing 5% of GDP annually on core defense requirements and related spending by 2035

• Policy Watch: The Budget
  The White House continues to negotiate the budget, but the crew over at Pryzm brought excellent highlights from the FY26 Presidential Budget Request

• Ideas in Progress: “We can’t out-China China.” 
  Onshoring everything likely won’t be enough or possible. China’s entire economy is built on manufacturing and they have 4x the population.  Instead, continue to deepen partnerships across the Indo-Pacific and reverse China’s dependencies onto us.

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