Startup software developer TurbineOne, whose forte is putting artificial intelligence into sensors at the tactical edge, has raised $36 million in a Series B funding round to increase hiring and boost sales globally.
Purpose built for national security applications, the San Francisco-based firm said its technology helps close the kill chain.
TurbineOne’s product is Frontline Perception Systems, which it says helps “warfighters detect, identify, and act on threats in real time, without technical training or cloud access.” The system has uses on head-up displays to autonomous drones and everything in between, the company says.
“The promise of dual-use AI hasn’t delivered for the battlefield,” Matt Amacker, TurbineOne’s chief technology officer, said in a statement. “We built this company with warfighters, for warfighters, so they get software that works safely offline, under pressure, and on the gear they already have.”
The funding round values the company at $300 million and was led by The General Partnership with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, XYZ Ventures, Stepstone Group, and PROOF VC. The funding will also be put toward hardened self-service products and scaling to meet demand.
TurbineOne said its software is used by the Defense Department and is deployed globally.
Top Senate defense appropriator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday the Trump administration’s defense budget outline, which factors in planned reconciliation spending to achieve a $1 trillion topline, “fails” to meet the required level of investment.
McConnell criticized the decision to include anticipated reconciliation funds as a “budgetary sleight of hand.”
Maj. Gen. Brett Sylvia, commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and Fort Campbell, speaks with Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) before the VOLAR barracks ribbon-cutting ceremony on Aug. 27, 2024, at Fort Campbell, Ky. Photo by Staff Sgt. Kaden Pitt, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault)
“American politicians have criticized partners who used special funds to mask shortcomings in annual defense spending. Well, we should be careful not to mistake our budget reconciliation for long-term commitment, either,” McConnell said in remarks at the Center for Strategic & International Studies’ (CSIS) Global Security Forum.
The Office of Management and Budget earlier this month rolled out the administration’s “skinny” budget proposal for fiscal year 2026, with the White House touting an “unprecedented” 13 percent boost in defense spending (Defense Daily, May 2).
The proposed $1 trillion defense topline includes a base budget request that would remain flat from FY ‘25 at around $893 billion and a factoring in a $113 billion increase that would come from funds in the pending reconciliation bill.
“These increases would be made possible through budget reconciliation, which would allow them to be enacted with simple majorities in the Congress, and not be held hostage by Democrats for wasteful nondefense spending increases as was the case in President Trump’s first term,” the White House previously said of its proposal.
The budget outline received swift pushback from several senior Republicans, including McConnell, who have advocated for significant increases in defense spending, to include boosting the topline to five percent of GDP.
McConnell at CSIS said he supports using the reconciliation bill to make a “significant, one-time investment” in defense, while adding he believes it’s “as dangerous as it is profoundly unserious” to use those dollars to account for full-year appropriations.
“Reconciliation spending may fund short-term operations or investments, but without sustained annual growth, it risks creating massive cliffs in sustainment, personnel, and procurement costs,” McConnell said.
The House Armed Services Committee on April 29 voted to advance the $150 billion compromise proposal to boost defense spending as part of congressional Republicans’ planned reconciliation bill to pass Trump administration priorities, which covers four years of funding and includes $25 billion for the Golden Dome missile defense system, tens of billions to boost shipbuilding and production of munitions and drones, $33.7 billion for shipbuilding and increases for a wide swath of defense priorities (Defense Daily, April 29).
The White House’s budget outline assumes that $119.3 billion of the total $150 billion for defense in the reconciliation bill will be spent in FY ‘26, with $113.3 billion for the Pentagon topline boost and $6 billion for National Nuclear Security Administration defense-related activities.
“Making urgent, nimble, innovative discretionary investments won’t get any easier if we cut the topline in real terms or force the defense enterprise to innovate for today’s challenges with yesterday’s dollars,” McConnell said. “Coming up short on America’s topline commitment to the national defense sends an unmistakable signal to the allies and partners who, for decades, have bet big on American technologies and American leadership.”
Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) has completed initial flight testing of its RAPCON-X platform for the Army’s ATHENA-S aerial intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (A-ISR) jet prototyping program.
The company said it plans to complete the final phase of flight testing with RAPCON-X, which is a
Bombardier Global 6500 jet outfitted with radars and signals intelligence systems, later this summer as it looks to deliver the aircraft in late 2025.
RAPCON-X. Photo: SNC.
“Achieving Flight Performance Handling Qualification is a significant milestone toward proving the aircraft’s airworthiness by validating consistent performance throughout the full flight envelope to ensure safety and reliability,” SNC said in a statement.
The Army awarded the prototype contract for Army’s Theater Level High-Altitude Expeditionary Next Aerial–Signals Intelligence, or ATHENA-S, project in late September 2023, with SNC set to provide two RAPCON-X platforms as a contractor-owned and operated services (Defense Daily, Oct. 10 2023).
SNC later said its deal for ATHENA-S was worth $554 million, with the company noting it first took possession of the two Global 6500 jets in 2022.
“RAPCON-X provides a disruptive asymmetric advantage to combatant commanders today and we are proud to continue development of this significant capability,” Tim Owings, executive vice president of SNC’s mission solutions and technologies business area, said in a statement. “Completing the flight performance handling milestone reinforces SNC’s commitment and readiness to meet capability and timeline requirements promised in support of these vital missions.”
The ATHENA-S prototyping effort is intended to serve as a bridge capability to ultimately inform final requirements for the Army’s future HADES, or High Accuracy Detection and Exploitation System, aerial ISR program of record.
The Army has awarded Bombardier Defense a contract to provide up to three Global 6500 business jets for HADES’ prototyping and in August 2024 picked SNC as the lead systems integrator for the program, awarding the firm a contract worth up to $991.3 million (Defense Daily, Aug. 22 2024).
Andrew Evans, director of the Army’s ISR Task Force, recently told Defense Daily that SNC’s integration of the first HADES prototype aircraft remains on track to support operational testing in late 2026 and that the second aircraft should be ready “just shortly after that.”
SNC said the successful initial flight testing of RAPCON-X, conducted in collaboration with Bombardier Defense, included “a full regime of flight maneuvers to validate its airworthiness and safety.”
“The RAPCON-X flight testing program was completed per plan, safely and efficiently – a testament to the ongoing seamless collaboration between Bombardier Defense and SNC. The performance and handling qualities were confirmed to be as predicted,” Steve Patrick, vice president of Bombardier Defense, said in a statement.
The testing also validated that “the reduced vertical separation minimum (RVSM) capability continues to perform well with the RAPCON-X modifications,” according to SNC.
“RVSM is a technology that allows aircraft to fly with a smaller vertical separation between them at higher altitudes, a critical requirement of A-ISR missions,” SNC said.
The company has emphasized that RAPCON-X was designed with an open architecture and model-based systems engineering to allow for rapid mission reconfiguration with new capabilities, with SNC noting the platform is intended to collect and process signals intelligence, electro-optical reconnaissance and ground moving-target signatures.
“SNC designed RAPCON-X with the customer and its need for both adaptability and rapid deployment in mind. Successfully completing this phase of flight testing proves SNC’s readiness to deliver the kind of mission-specific solutions that will give our soldiers the tactical advantage they need in today’s near-peer environment,” Josh Walsh, SNC’s vice president of programs, said in a statement.
The Senate on Tuesday afternoon confirmed Troy Meink as Secretary of the U.S. Air Force on a 74 to 25 vote.
Democrats voting to approve Meink include Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee; Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), ranking member of the SASC airland panel; Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), ranking member of the SASC seapower panel; and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), ranking member of SASC’s emerging threats and capabilities subcommittee. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) did not vote.
President Trump has yet to nominate an Air Force acquisition chief.
Before Meink’s nomination in January as Air Force secretary, he served, since October 2020, as the principal deputy director of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). There, he spurred acceleration of NRO’s use of fixed price contracts. Some national security analysts have said that Meink has had a close working relationship with SpaceX founder Elon Musk and have expressed conflict of interest concerns because of that relationship.
Meink has said that he favors multiple competitions over defense modernization programs’ lifetimes and an examination of direct, “big” investment in industrial capacity akin to the post-WWII Air Force Heavy Press program (Defense Daily, March 28).
In 1946, the U.S. built its first heavy press and then received more presses from Germany as WWII reparations. In 1955, Pittsburgh’s Mesta Machinery, now Alcoa [AA], built a 50,000-ton heavy press in Cleveland at Air Force Plant 47–a factory that the Air Force has used for its aircraft, including the F-15.
Saildrone on Tuesday said it closed a $60 million funding round led by a Danish fund that will lead to the deployment in June of four unmanned surface vessels (USVs) in the Baltic Sea under contract to the Danish Armed Forces.
The initial deployment will consist of four Voyager USVs, 33-foot long wind-powered craft that fuse radar, camera, and acoustic sensors to provide autonomous maritime intelligence in an area. The Voyagers will also be used for ocean floor mapping.
Saildrone in April announced it opened its first European subsidiary based in Copenhagen given the need for persistent maritime domain awareness following sabotage of undersea infrastructure in the Baltic Sea (Defense Daily, April 12).
The funding was led by the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark, and includes existing investors
Lux Capital, Washington Harbor Partners, Crowley, and Academy Securities, and new investor Pinegrove.
Saildrone is headquartered in California. The company has a family of USVs that it operates to provide domain awareness and intelligence as a service to its customers.
“Denmark’s unique geographic and political position at the heart of northern Europe makes it the perfect place to establish our European headquarters and operational hub,” Richard Jenkins, founder and CEO of Saildrone, said in a statement. “Working initially with the Danish Armed Forces, we plan to roll out Saildrone’s maritime intelligence services to multiple NATO countries during the course of the year. Our goal is to provide 24/7, year-round coverage for all critical infrastructure in the Baltic and North Sea, safeguarding these highly valuable installations for current and future generations.”
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) contends that achieving the minimum viable product (MVP) standard for two-year satellite tranches could help save the U.S. Space Force Space Development Agency (SDA) hundreds of millions of dollars over 10 years.
“In February 2025, GAO made three recommendations for the Air Force to demonstrate the minimum viable product for laser communications capability in space Tranche 0, 1, and 2 before proceeding with subsequent launch decisions,” according to GAO’s just-issued annual report on duplication within federal agencies.
“The Department of Defense concurred with GAO’s recommendations with comments indicating they were already taking these actions and incorporating lessons learned into future iterations,” the annual study said. “While GAO agrees they are incorporating some lessons learned, they have not demonstrated the minimum viable product which would help them fully understand whether the technology works as intended. GAO maintains the recommendations are warranted.”
SpaceX used OCTs built by German-based TESAT to hit the mark three times–in the category of Tracking Layer space-to-space laser links among SpaceX satellites in the same orbital plane, Tracking Layer space-to-space data transmission among SpaceX satellites in the same orbital plane, and Tracking Layer space-to-ground laser links.
York Space Systems used TESAT OCTs to pass muster in the Transport Layer space-to-space laser links among York satellites, while Lockheed Martin [LMT] and L3Harris Technologies [LHX] did not hit any of the marks, according to GAO’s February study.
“In commenting on the report after issuance, in March 2025, SDA officials said that Tranche 0 was a prototype, did not have a minimum viable product, and was not necessary for subsequent development,” according to GAO’s just-issued annual duplication report. “Further, they stated that Tranche 0 demonstrated initial capability for Tranche 1. This is a significant change from the way SDA previously characterized both Tranches 0 and 1 in planning documents and other sources. Specifically, planning documents from 2021 and SDA’s website in March 2025 identified the minimum viable product of Tranche 0 as forming a foundation for development in future tranches.”
“Additionally, the minimum viable product for Tranche 1, as identified in its planning documents, described a larger laser-based network that relies on capability not yet demonstrated by Tranche 0,” the report said.
SDA Director Derek Tournear said last October “that SDA is no longer planning to develop an MVP, rather that the agency considers the MVP to be equivalent to the MVC [minimum viability capability].”
GAO said that an example of MVC would be the amount of global coverage expected for a satellite constellation, while MVP would be the number of satellites required to provide such coverage.
The just-issued GAO annual duplication report said that GAO “cannot precisely estimate the potential savings from implementation of” the agency’s recommendations “because, while SDA has identified planned spending through 2029, specific savings opportunities are not yet known.”
“However, if implementing GAO’s recommendations produces even one percent of savings, SDA could save hundreds of millions of dollars over 10 years,” GAO said. “For example, if SDA implements GAO’s recommendations to wait until it demonstrates minimum viable products in each tranche of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture effort, it could postpone production of future tranches until later years, avoiding costly rework based on designs that do not meet necessary capabilities.”
While BlackSky Technology [BKSY] said that it is to make its Generation-3 Earth imaging satellites widely available this year, the company is offering “early access” to a select group of “multiple international defense sector customers,” BlackSky said on Tuesday.
“The customers will now be able to integrate very high-resolution, 35-centimeter imagery into daily intelligence operations,” the company said.
In February, BlackSky said that it won a “multimillion dollar” contract from the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) to manage and operate one of the company’s Gen-3 satellites for the Tactical GEOINT (TACGEO) program (Defense Daily, Feb. 25).
The December 2024 contract builds on an award BlackSky announced in September 2020 with DIU that included a preliminary design review of the Gen-3 satellite for the U.S. Army TACGEO prototype program. On Feb. 18, Rocket Lab USA [RKLB] launched the first spacecraft for BlackSky’s planned Gen-3 constellation.
That first Gen-3 satellite “produced imagery within five days [of launch] and AI-enabled analytics within three weeks of launch” and has completed commissioning, the company said last week.
The TACGEO program began as a research, development, and technology effort to leverage a Gen-3 satellite for responsive tactical intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) from space. The U.S. government has provided input into developing Gen-3 since 2020 as part of a broader effort to develop space-based tactical ISR capabilities, a company spokesperson said.
The electro-optic Gen-3 satellites will eventually include new low-latency intersatellite communication links. The future constellation will also offer automatic detection, identification, and classification of more vehicles, aircraft, vessels, and other items of interest, and the ability to image through smoke and haze with short-wave infrared bands.
In addition to the TACGEO awards, BlackSky has other government research and development contracts to develop space-based tactical GEOINT capabilities, including work with the Air Force Research laboratory for ground moving target indication, and a Navy research contract to explore optical intersatellite links.
BlackSky CEO Brian O’Toole said in the company’s Tuesday statement that the Gen-3 early access agreements “demonstrate confidence in the quality and reliability of our imagery products and will give these customers transformative capabilities that BlackSky uniquely delivers through our proven end-to-end, next-generation artificial intelligence [AI]-enabled commercial architecture.”
“The subscription-based contracts provide access to the BlackSky Spectra tasking and analytics platform, through which customers will be able to order high-cadence, time-diverse dawn-to-dusk Gen-2 and Gen-3 imagery and AI-enabled analytics,” the company said. “These initial contracts are designed to scale in size and volume as the company increases available Gen-3 capacity over time.”
BlackSky said that its clients task and receive “thousands of high-resolution images and analytics over priority areas of interest every month, gaining visibility and insight into border crossings, nuclear and port facilities, and other critical national security and economic infrastructure at massive scale.”
The State Department approved a possible military sale with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) worth $1.32 billion for six CH-47F Block II Extended Range Chinook heavy-lift helicopters and related equipment.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) notified Congress of the Foreign Military Sale (FMS) on Monday.
Under this deal, UAE is seeking six
Boeing [BA] CH-47F Block II Chinook helicopters with an air-to-air refuel probe capability and extended range fuel tanks alongside six Honeywell [HON] T-55-GA-714A engines; associated navigation systems, AN/AAR-57 Common Missile Warning Systems (CMWS); 20 AN/ARC-231A communications security radios; and 20 M-240 machine guns.
Other non-major defense equipment covered by the FMS includes CMWS classified software, AN/APR-39A radar warning receivers; AN/AVR-2B Laser Detecting Sets (LDS); AN/ARC-220 high frequency (HF) radios; and other navigation, communications and radar systems plus various helicopter systems, support equipment and logistics support.
CH-47F Block II. (Photo: U.S. Army)
DSCA said the UAE would use these helicopters to extend the range of its flight operations for search and rescue, disaster relief, humanitarian support, and counterterrorism operations.
The Block II version of the Chinook has upgrades with an improved drivetrain, increased range, redesigned fuel system and capability to lift 4,000 more pounds.,
The DoD agency also said this sale supports U.S. foreign policy by helping improve the security of an “important regional partner.”
Boeing delivered the first Block II Chinook to the U.S. Army last year (Defense Daily, July 1, 2024).
So far, three CH-47F Block IIs have been delivered to the Army and the Milestone C decision to move it into full-rate production is expected this year.
If this latest deal goes through, UAE would be the fifth customer to field the CH-47F Block II, joining the U.S. Army, Germany, U.K, and most recently Japan.
In February. Boeing announced Japan signed a deal to acquire 17 CH-47F Block II Chinooks, to be co-produced with Japan’s Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) as prime contractor there (Defense Daily, Feb. 13, 2025).
In September, Boeing said it wants to offer the Chinook Block II to Poland as well (Defense Daily, Sept. 5, 2024).
However, on Monday Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced he plans to “block any arms sale to a nation that is doing direct personnel business with Trump. We should have a full Senate debate and vote.”
He cited UAE’s investment in Trump crypto venture and Qatar’s plan to gift a Boeing 747-8 jet plane to Trump as “nuclear grade graft. An unacceptable corruption of our foreign policy.”
Normally, arms sales go forward without a vote. But any Senator can object and force a full debate and Senate vote. I will do that for any military deal with a nation that is paying off Trump personally. We can’t act like this is normal foreign policy.
Arms sales usually sail through the Senate without needing a vote, but Murphy noted any single senator can object and force a full debate and vote. He reiterated he plans to do that for any military sale deal when he believes the country is personally paying off Trump.
The crypto reference is connected to how Trump backs the World Liberty Financial crypto exchange with his sons, Donald Trump, Jr. and Eric Trump. Earlier this month MGX, a Abu Dhabi, UAE-based firm, said it is using a World Liberty USD1 cryptocurrency to close a planned $2 billion investment into Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange. In March, World Liberty said it was launching the USD1 as a dollar-pegged stablecoin to be backed by U.S. Treasuries, dollars and other equivalents.
Separately, the State Department also approved a $130 million potential FMS with UAE for F-16 sustainment and related equipment.
The UAE is seeking additional F-16 components spares, accessories and other elements of logistics and program support.
DSCA said this sale will be added to a previously implemented case that was valued at $40.9 million and none in major defense equipment, below the congressional notification threshold.
DoD said that original F-16 sustainment sale covered Common Munitions Built-in-Test Reprogramming Equipment (CMBRE); munitions support equipment; night vision device (NVD) support and spare equipment; spare parts, consumables and accessories; repair and return support; classified and unclassified software; and other technical and logistics support services.
The F-16 notice also said while the description and dollar value are for the highest estimated quantity and value based on requirements, the actual final dollar value will be lower, depending on final requirements, budget authority, and final signed sales agreements.
VTG on Tuesday said it has completed three more acquisitions that enhance its capabilities, solutions offerings, and footprint with the intelligence community.
Terms of the deals for Byte Systems, LLC, iota IT, LLC, and Tunuva Technologies Inc. were not disclosed. The three companies combined bring more than 100 new personnel to VTG, which now has about 1,700 employees.
Byte Systems provides secure network and data engineering and analytics solutions. Tunuva has expertise in cyber and information security, analytics solutions, and data discovery. Iota IT supports its customers with software development, cloud migration, big data analytics, and SecDevOps. All three companies are based in Northern Virginia.
John Hassoun, VTG’s CEO, said of the acquisitions that “We believe that their combined expertise in advanced technology solutions will greatly enhance our ability to provide top-tier services and products to our clients in the national security sector.”
The three acquisitions follow VTG’s deal in April for Triaplex, which also added to its customer base in the intelligence community (Defense Daily, April 30).
VTG, which is also based in Northern Virginia, is majority owned by
The Missile Defense Agency awarded RTX [RTX] a $2.13 billion contract modification Monday to continue providing maintenance on all Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block variants across all U.S. and partner countries.
The DoD announcement said the company will “provide the management, material, and services associated with the sustaining engineering and product support services” for all SM-3 Block variants across the U.S. and its Foreign Military Sales partners.
This award increases the parent contract’s value from nearly $1.2 billion to $3.33 billion.
The parent contract was originally awarded in October 2020, starting with a ceiling value of $722 million for this kind of managing and sustainment services for SM-3s, lasting through October 2029.
Previously, MDA raised the ceiling for the contract by $475 million in November 2022 to the $1.2 billion level.
RTX will continue to perform this new set of work at its Tucson, Ariz., and Huntsville, Ala., facilities. The announcement listed the same period of performance running from October 2020 through October 2029.
