#Ones2Watch

Who they are

Space ISAC launched in 2019 as a nonprofit information sharing and analysis center for the space industry. From its home base in Colorado Springs, also home of Space Symposium, it has grown its threat-sharing network into Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

Australia hosts its first international watch center, and the Canada Global Hub, opened in April 2026, moves the organization closer to its vision of a globally integrated Watch Center.

Why they matter

Space is no longer out there. It runs through GPS, bank transfers, phone calls, and national security, and the threats against it are growing fast. Space ISAC gives the industry a trusted place to compare notes, and its Watch Center, open since 2023, monitors threats to space systems in real time.

What sets them apart

Space ISAC brings organizations that rarely share a table into the same conversation. Recent collaborations include:

• A partnership with NASA's Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program
• An agreement with NATO's Space Theatre Component
• A quantum community launched with MITRE
• A space governance working group with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Indiana University

Why it matters to the DIB

More of the defense industrial base's growth is moving into orbit and onto the ground systems that keep it running. Collective defense like the kind Space ISAC organizes matters more every day.

Who they are

Northwood Space is led by co-founder and CEO Bridgit Mendler, whose path to space runs from the Disney Channel through MIT and Harvard Law. She co-founded the company with CTO Griffin Cleverly, a Lockheed Martin and MITRE alum, and engineer Shaurya Luthra to take on what she calls "a gnarly problem," the ground side of space.

The company's new 185,000-square-foot headquarters and factory in Torrance, California, is set to begin production in October 2026.

Why they matter

Every satellite needs a ground station to send its data home, and ground infrastructure has not kept pace with the number of spacecraft going up. Northwood mass-produces phased-array ground stations, called Portals, that can be fielded quickly. In a demo with Planet Labs, Northwood says its system cost 10x less than existing phased-array technology and was ready 5x faster.

The U.S. Space Force awarded Northwood $49.8M to help upgrade its Satellite Control Network, which tracks and controls GPS satellites and has been short on capacity since 2011, according to a 2023 GAO report.

What sets them apart

Northwood is rethinking the ground layer so it works more like the cloud, providing hardware, software, and a network whenever a mission needs it so operators do not have to build their own from scratch. The company is also scaling quickly with:

• A new Prism antenna
• A $100M Series B led by Washington Harbour Partners and co-led by Andreessen Horowitz
• A Torrance factory expected to add 400 jobs over the next three years

Why it matters to the DIB

Ground capacity has long been a bottleneck, including for the Space Force's own satellite network. Ground stations that are faster and less expensive to field help close that gap for defense and commercial missions alike.

Who they are

Quindar is a space software company that gives operators a holistic operating picture across spacecraft, payloads, and ground systems. It was founded in 2022 by six engineers who met at OneWeb, where they helped build a satellite constellation operating platform, so they know firsthand how messy ground operations can get.

In November 2025, Quindar raised an $18M Series A led by Washington Harbour Partners, the same firm that led Northwood Space's Series B.

Why they matter

From commercial constellations to national security missions, Quindar makes mission operations faster, smarter, and far more automated. Its national security focus stands out, and the company is standing up a classified mission operations center in the Denver area.

What sets them apart

Speed is what sets Quindar apart. A new government ground system can take more than a decade to field, but Quindar can bring a common operating picture online in days.

Quantum Space selected Quindar to support its Scout and Ranger missions, helping those teams move quickly without building a custom ground system.

Why it matters to the DIB

The ground segment is one of the most overlooked pieces of space security. Quindar's approach helps defense missions get operational in days instead of waiting years on a custom build.

Who they are

Sphinx Defense is a team of engineers who got fed up with outdated, insecure technology and set out to challenge the status quo. Based in Colorado Springs, the company builds software that makes satellite operations and ground data transport simpler, faster, and more secure for government and commercial teams.

Sphinx was co-founded by CEO Hunter Price, who previously led the United States Digital Service, and VP of Engineering Sebastien Diebler, who was the first employee at cybersecurity company Qualys and helped build its engineering team through IPO.

Why they matter

Mission success starts on the ground, and Sphinx's work delivers more secure communications for national security missions. Space Systems Command selected Sphinx for a $9.5M award to build a Joint Antenna Marketplace prototype that connects satellite operations centers with government and commercial antennas.

Sphinx also holds a spot on the Space Force's R2C2 ground systems contract, which has a potential value of $1 billion.

What sets them apart

The U.S. Space Force trusts Sphinx with some of its most sensitive work. In July 2026, Sphinx won a $287M agreement to build the mission planning application for the Evolved Strategic SATCOM ground segment, which will help keep communications secure and resilient for the President and national leaders.

Its day-to-day work covers:

• Antenna contact scheduling
• Satellite command and control
• Strategic SATCOM mission planning

Why it matters to the DIB

Replacing legacy technology is complicated, unglamorous work, and it is what keeps critical satellite links secure and connected. Sphinx chose to take on the grunt work of replacing aging systems instead of working around them, and that follow-through is exactly what national security missions need.

Who they are

Muon Space designs, builds, launches, and operates entire satellite constellations for defense, civil, and commercial customers. The company calls this model the Mission Foundry, and it delivers a complete constellation in months where the process used to take years.

Led by co-founder Jonny Dyer, Muon closed a $250M Series C in August 2026 and is ramping up a San Jose factory built to produce up to 500 satellites a year by 2027.

Why they matter

FireSat, the wildfire detection constellation Muon built with Earth Fire Alliance and Google, was named one of TIME's Best Inventions of 2025.

As of October 2026, Muon has put 11 satellites in orbit across six launches without a single mission failure, and seven of those satellites launched in 2026 alone. Another 13 are booked to launch within the next year.

What sets them apart

Muon delivers a complete, working constellation and manages every stage of the mission, including:

• Design and manufacturing
• Launch
• Daily operations in orbit
• Processing the data the satellites send back to Earth

Muon also brought propulsion in house by acquiring Starlight Engines, and in September 2026 it fired the first zinc-fueled Hall-effect thruster in space.

Why it matters to the DIB

Muon is starting to win missile warning and tracking work. More national security missions on more satellites means more systems to protect, both in orbit and on the ground, and Muon has taken ownership of every piece of the mission.

Who they are

Starfish Space, based just outside Seattle, builds spacecraft that fly up to other satellites, dock with them, and extend their life, move them, or safely retire them. Austin Link and Trevor Bennett co-founded the company in 2019 after working as flight sciences engineers at Blue Origin, with the goal of making satellite servicing affordable enough to become routine. Starfish works with NASA, the U.S. Space Force, and commercial satellite operators.

Its Otter spacecraft, about the size of a kitchen oven, launched from Vandenberg on SpaceX's Transporter-18 mission alongside 129 other payloads. A little over an hour after liftoff, Otter separated from the rocket and powered up for orbital operations.

Why they matter

Starfish holds the first-ever end-of-life disposal contract for a low Earth orbit constellation, a $52.5M award from the Space Development Agency. Its $54.5M Space Force contract was also the only APFIT award to a space company in its cycle. APFIT is a Department of War program that moves proven technology into operations.

Otter has a full lineup of missions ahead:

• A NASA mission to inspect a series of inoperable satellites
• Disposal work for the Space Development Agency
• Two Space Force servicing missions
• Two commercial missions in geostationary orbit

What sets them apart

Otter runs only on electric propulsion and can latch onto satellites that have no docking hardware. Its capture device just needs a plain flat surface to grab. Docking missions have traditionally relied on heavy chemical propulsion, so Starfish built its own guidance software to dock using lighter, more efficient electric thrusters.

Starfish says this makes Otter 10x smaller and far less expensive than the alternatives. One Otter can also visit several satellites on a single mission, working more like a service truck than a single tow.

Why it matters to the DIB

The Space Force has already purchased two Otters to help move its most important satellites in geostationary orbit, with more on the way, and Starfish is the first company to land a contract for safely retiring satellites from a military constellation. Keeping national security satellites in service, in position, and safely retired is work the defense mission depends on.

Who they are

Neros Technologies is a Torrance, California, drone maker founded in 2023 with an ambitious mission to bring drone manufacturing back to American soil. Unmanned systems are changing the character of warfare, and the founders saw that the United States and its allies had fallen dramatically behind their adversaries in both performance and production. So they built a company where the ability to scale is designed into every drone from day one.

CEO Soren Monroe-Anderson, a former world champion drone racer and Thiel Fellow, co-founded Neros with CTO Olaf Hichwa, who designed custom circuit boards for racing drones. The two met at a drone racing competition in 2017 and decided to start Neros after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Why they matter

In July 2026, the U.S. Army awarded Neros a $500M contract to supply its Archer FPV drones under the Purpose Built Attritable System (PBAS) program. In August 2026, Neros raised a $250M Series C at a $2.5B valuation, co-led by Sequoia Capital and the American Strategic Technology Fund.

Neros already holds contracts with the U.S. Army, the U.S. Marine Corps, every component of SOCOM, and half a dozen allied countries.

What sets them apart

Neros stands out for how it delivers. The Pentagon's Drone Dominance program tests whether commercial companies can build high-performance, low-cost drones and whether they can produce them in massive quantities on short notice. Neros has excelled on both counts:

• Placed second in Gauntlet I and was the first company to deliver its full order
• Earned multiple bonus orders for delivery speed, the only manufacturer to do so
• Took first in Close Quarters Battle and third in Deep Strike in Gauntlet II
• Landed an order for 14,000 drones and explosive payloads valued at more than $100M, the largest order of Gauntlet II

Why it matters to the DIB

A secure, domestic defense supply chain is something Sentinel Blue champions. Neros engineers at the speed of modern conflict, keeps production in the United States, and keeps turning contract wins into drones in warfighters' hands, which is exactly the kind of execution the defense industrial base needs.

Who they are

The brain inside many of America's newest military drones weighs about as much as three nickels. It is an autopilot made by ModalAI, a San Diego company whose technology lets small drones and ground robots see, steer, and navigate inside buildings, tunnels, and other places GPS cannot reach. ModalAI also sells ready-to-fly development drones so other builders can test their ideas without starting from scratch.

ModalAI spun out of Qualcomm in 2018. Co-founder and CEO Chad Sweet spent 20 years at Qualcomm, where he led robotics R&D, earned 15 patents, and was behind Snapdragon Flight, the platform that powered NASA's first drone on Mars.

Why they matter

ModalAI built the first Blue UAS Framework autopilot, and its VOXL products have been the core autopilot for two generations of the Defense Innovation Unit's Blue UAS Framework program. VOXL 2 alone has been integrated into more than 300 drone designs.

Its drones are hand built in the U.S. without parts from countries the Pentagon has banned, which helps strengthen the domestic drone supply chain.

What sets them apart

ModalAI's autonomy keeps working when GPS and communications go down, so a jammed signal does not mean a lost drone. Its results in the Pentagon's Drone Dominance Program show it:

• Earned a Gauntlet I order for 2,240 drones earlier in 2026
• Finished top five in Close Quarters Battle in Gauntlet II
• Earned a Gauntlet II order for 4,000 more drones
• Kept flying through night missions and tight urban courses during the competitions

Why it matters to the DIB

ModalAI builds the foundation other innovators stand on. Its hardware sits inside hundreds of other companies' drones and is intentionally small, lightweight, and open so others can build on it. A commitment to trusted, U.S.-built components at that level ripples across the entire unmanned ecosystem, and supply chain security is an issue Sentinel Blue thinks about every day.

Who they are

Many drone defenses can only spot a threat, not stop it. Utah-based Fortem Technologies closes that gap by finding hostile drones, tracking them, and safely taking them out of the sky, all with technology it builds in house. Instead of destroying a threat over a crowded base or a public space like a stadium, Fortem can capture it and bring it down with minimal collateral damage.

Fortem's leadership team includes co-founder and CTO Adam Robertson, co-founder and COO Timothy Bean, and CEO Jon Gruen.

Why they matter

Drones are a growing risk to military installations at home and abroad, and to the critical infrastructure the defense industrial base depends on. Investors have taken notice. Lockheed Martin invested $25M in Fortem in April 2026, and the company recently closed an oversubscribed $50M Series B.

What sets them apart

A growing number of agencies are bringing Fortem on board, including:

• A three-year, $18M U.S. Army contract, awarded in February 2026, to deploy its interceptors and provide field support at Army sites worldwide
• A Department of Homeland Security selection, also in February 2026, to help protect 2026 FIFA World Cup venues
• A prime spot on a DHS counter-UAS contract with a ceiling of more than $1B, awarded in August 2026, as the only small business selected

Why it matters to the DIB

Taking down a drone is one thing, but doing it safely over a crowded arena or an active base is another. Fortem thinks about consequences as much as capabilities, and that focus on protecting people makes its technology a strong fit for the installations and facilities the defense industrial base relies on.

Who they are

Before soldiers can defend against enemy aircraft, they need something realistic to train against, and for more than two decades Griffon Aerospace has been building it. The Alabama-based company designs, builds, and flies unmanned aircraft, including aerial targets and low-cost attack drones, for the U.S. military and allied nations.

Griffon got its start in 1995, when founder and CEO Larry French built a vintage-inspired, six-seat kit aircraft. Since then, the company has designed, built, and flown thousands of unmanned aircraft for the U.S. Department of War, allied nations, and research labs.

Why they matter

Griffon was in the drone business long before it was trendy, and its target systems have supported the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force since 2004.

The work keeps coming. In June 2026, the Pentagon awarded Griffon a $68M contract for its Outlaw Gen 3 fixed-wing drones, and in August 2026 the U.S. Army doubled down on the Outlaw line with a contract worth nearly $133M.

What sets them apart

Griffon moved quickly from training targets into attack drones, and its results in the Department of War's Drone Dominance Program show it:

• Selected in February 2026 as one of 25 companies for the program's first round
• Finished among the top 11 companies that earned delivery orders
• Made the cut again as one of 19 companies in the second round, where each had to deliver 120 drones in about five weeks

Why it matters to the DIB

Longevity in the defense industrial base comes from doing unglamorous work well, year after year. Griffon describes itself as a "lion-hearted partner" to the military, and this small team keeps giving service members an advantage while building toward what comes next.

Who they are

Some of the most dangerous jobs on the battlefield come down to driving, moving supplies, weapons, and equipment through risky, contested terrain. Forterra, based in Clarksburg, Maryland, is taking the driver out of those vehicles. Its autonomy hardware and software can be added to vehicles the military already owns, so they can navigate rough, off-road, and GPS-denied environments on their own.

Founder and president Alberto Lacaze, who holds more than 100 robotics patents, started the company in 2002 as Robotic Research and led development of the Department of War's first fully autonomous convoy vehicles. CEO Josh Araujo, a former Marine, stepped into the role in 2024. The name Forterra blends "for" with "terra," Latin for earth or solid ground.

Why they matter

Forterra has been building military autonomy for more than 20 years, and fewer people in harm's way means a stronger, safer force.

In just six months, Forterra built and sent 105 autonomous Lancer vehicles to Ukraine. As of October 2026, those vehicles have run more than 1,100 missions, including 52 casualty evacuations.

What sets them apart

Forterra's self-driving technology is already in the field with U.S. troops:

• AutoDrive was the first system the U.S. military fielded that lets ground vehicles maneuver on their own
• In June 2026, Forterra and prime contractor Oshkosh Defense secured a $92M U.S. Marine Corps award to deliver self-driving launch vehicles for the Corps' ship-killing missile system
• That award is the military's first large-scale production contract for ground vehicle autonomy

Why it matters to the DIB

Forterra kept its head down and worked through two decades of hard engineering before the rest of the world caught on. That persistence turned autonomy into something warfighters rely on every day, and it is the kind of long-haul commitment the defense industrial base is built on.

Who they are

Shift5 describes itself as the operational intelligence platform for America's defense and transportation systems. Vehicles, aircraft, ships, and trains constantly generate data from their onboard systems, and Shift5 captures that data and turns it into real-time insights for maintenance and threat detection.

The company was founded in 2019 by former Army cyber officers who helped stand up U.S. Army Cyber Command and pioneered modern weapon system cyber assessments. Shift5 returns to #Ones2Watch after appearing on our Spring 2025, Fall 2025, and Spring 2026 lists.

Why they matter

Shift5 started with cybersecurity and has since added predictive maintenance and GPS integrity monitoring. It is also growing fast. In 2025, the company more than doubled its vehicle deployments and closed a $75M Series C led by Hedosophia.

What sets them apart

Shift5's intelligence reaches the field quickly. The company is a key partner on Anduril's team for the Army's Next Generation Command and Control effort, where its platform pulls vehicle health data to give commanders real-time visibility into readiness and sustainment.

Shift5 integrated in just two months, in time for the 4th Infantry Division to use it during the Ivy Sting 4 exercise.

Why it matters to the DIB

Military vehicles and aircraft produce a constant stream of data, and adversaries already target those systems with GPS spoofing and cyberattacks. Sentinel Blue spends a lot of time thinking about where defense data lives and who is watching it, and Shift5 puts that data in the hands of the people who maintain and defend those platforms.

Who they are

Armis is a cyber exposure management company focused on the connected equipment that keeps modern operations running. Picture a factory floor with PLCs, robotic arms, sensors, badge readers, HVAC controls, and the laptops talking to all of it. Armis finds and classifies those assets without installing agents on them, then shows the risk across IT, OT, and IoT in one place.

Why they matter

Armis now monitors nearly 7 billion connected devices. In 2025, it acquired OT security company OTORIO, so industrial customers with air-gapped environments can run Armis fully on premises.

In April 2026, ServiceNow completed its $7.75B acquisition of Armis. Armis can be bundled with ServiceNow's tools and is still available as a standalone solution.

What sets them apart

Armis has gone deep into defense. In 2026, the Defense Information Systems Agency authorized Armis Centrix to operate at Impact Level 5, which covers Department of War systems that handle Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI).

That builds on the FedRAMP Moderate and IL4 authorizations Armis earned in 2023, giving defense organizations a way to see and manage risk across their networks under the controls their missions require.

Why it matters to the DIB

Sentinel Blue talks with defense manufacturers often, and the conversation keeps coming back to the shop floor and the confusion around OT. CNC machines, test equipment, and production lines often run older systems that share networks with sensitive data, and many teams do not have a full list of what is plugged in.

Armis gives them that list, plus a clear sense of what to fix first. That groundwork keeps production secure and helps close the knowledge gap at the IT/OT handoff.

Who they are

Every missile needs a rocket motor, and the Department of War is doubling down on munitions production. That means more motors, built faster, from more suppliers. Ursa Major, based in Berthoud, Colorado, is helping meet that demand with scalable, mission-ready systems, including solid rocket motors, liquid rocket engines, and hypersonic propulsion for national defense and space.

Ursa Major was founded in 2015 by Joe Laurienti, a former SpaceX and Blue Origin propulsion engineer.

Why they matter

The team has grown to more than 360 people across six facilities, and its Lynx additive manufacturing process turns out hundreds of motors a year. Ursa Major engines have also powered more than a dozen successful hypersonic missions.

In August 2026, the company announced plans to go public through a $2.3B SPAC deal expected to close in early 2027.

What sets them apart

The U.S. Navy is putting Ursa Major to work quickly:

• Two Navy contracts worth $137M, awarded in October 2026, to develop solid rocket motors for the Compact Air-to-Air Missile and the Naval Modular Missile
• A $10M Navy award in July 2026 to advance its MK 104 motor, which powers the Standard Missile family

Why it matters to the DIB

New motor plants mean new production lines, new test sites, and a lot of sensitive design data moving between engineers, suppliers, and the government. Sentinel Blue is always glad to see the defense supply chain grow to meet demand, and Ursa Major is helping the U.S. build more of the motors it needs, faster.

Who they are

Nearly every large missile and interceptor in the U.S. arsenal needs a solid rocket motor to get off the ground, and for decades just two primary manufacturers have built almost all of them. X-Bow Systems, headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is out to change that as a new domestic supplier using advanced manufacturing to build rocket motors faster, cheaper, and at much greater scale.

X-Bow was founded in 2016 by a team including CEO Jason Hundley, a former Northrop Grumman engineer who knew the legacy way of doing things and set out to build a better one.

Why they matter

In May 2025, X-Bow closed a Series B of more than $105M, with Lockheed Martin leading the strategic portion and bringing X-Bow on as a new independent rocket motor supplier.

The contracts keep coming. In 2026 alone, X-Bow has been selected for six new propulsion programs across the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army, and Missile Defense Agency. Most recently, it won a prototype agreement worth nearly $70M to develop a booster for a next-generation Navy weapon.

What sets them apart

X-Bow stands out for producing at scale. The company recently completed its first major production contract, delivering more than 2,100 combat-ready rocket motors. In an industry where new suppliers are rare and production has been stuck for decades, that is a significant milestone.

Why it matters to the DIB

Relying on two primary manufacturers for most solid rocket motors is an entrenched problem for the defense industrial base. X-Bow is taking it on directly, building the propulsion capacity the U.S. needs one motor at a time, and Sentinel Blue is a big fan of challengers like that.

Who they are

Hypersonic missiles travel at least five times the speed of sound, which makes them especially difficult to defend against. They have also historically been incredibly expensive to build.

Castelion, a California-based aerospace company founded in 2022 by SpaceX alumni, is setting out to change that. It designs hypersonic strike weapons for mass production, with a goal of keeping the cost around half a million dollars per missile.

Why they matter

If deterrence depends on having enough of the right weapons on hand, Castelion is helping the U.S. get there faster. Its approach has already drawn the Navy's attention:

• A $105M U.S. Navy contract, awarded in April 2026, to integrate the missile onto the F/A-18 Super Hornet
• An additional Navy production order worth up to $200M, placed in September 2026

What sets them apart

Castelion builds almost everything itself. Borrowing from the commercial space playbook, it makes the critical pieces in house, including:

• Solid rocket motors
• Flight computers
• Thermal protection materials
• Mission software

That cuts out the markups and long lead times that come with the traditional defense supply chain.

Castelion also tests early and iterates quickly. Traditional programs wait years to fly a perfect end-to-end missile, but Castelion starts testing major subsystems early and adds complexity over time. The company completed its first flight test just 16 months after its founding and aims for roughly one test every two weeks, with every flight feeding data back into the design.

Why it matters to the DIB

Lower costs and higher output rarely go together in defense production. Castelion pairs strategy and urgency with in-house production to deliver both, showing that advanced weapons can be affordable, fast to produce, and available in the numbers warfighters need.

Who they are

San Diego-based Seasats builds small, solar-powered autonomous boats that can stay out on the ocean for months at a time without a crew. That lets the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps keep a persistent watch over huge stretches of water, gathering intelligence and monitoring for threats without putting sailors in harm's way.

Seasats was founded in 2020 by four friends who grew up building boats together in coastal Rhode Island. Their first autonomous boat, a garage project called Scout, attempted a trans-Atlantic voyage in 2013.

Why they matter

Unmanned vessels are becoming a bigger part of how the U.S. protects the maritime domain. Seasats has secured more than $100M in customer contracts, including an $89M SBIR Phase III contract to deliver boats to the Marine Corps.

In a single month in summer 2026, Seasats booked more than $24M in committed Navy and Marine Corps orders.

What sets them apart

Seasats combines endurance with practicality. Its 11-foot flagship boat can run for up to six months and travel 8,000 nautical miles on solar power, yet one or two people can launch it from a pickup truck. Seasats vessels can also:

• Launch drones
• Intercept maritime threats
• Predict harmful algal blooms

Why it matters to the DIB

Seasats has pursued the same big idea from the start, and it is making persistent maritime awareness affordable and easy to field. That matters more every day as unmanned vessels take on a bigger role at sea.

Who they are

HavocAI is a team of U.S. Navy veterans who believe commanding a fleet of unmanned boats should be as easy as playing a video game. Based in Rhode Island, the company builds collaborative autonomy software that lets a single operator task and supervise many unmanned vessels, drones, and ground platforms at once.

HavocAI was co-founded by longtime friends who spent their weekends turning canoes, dinghies, and off-the-shelf parts into autonomous boats. Their founding idea, that warfighters need software that makes controlling fleets simple, took them from weekend project to Pentagon supplier in three years.

Why they matter

HavocAI's software lets assets on land, in the air, and at sea coordinate with each other on their own, even in GPS-denied environments, which means more capability with fewer people in harm's way. Investors and industry have taken note:

• An $85M funding round in 2025
• A $100M Series A in May 2026
• A partnership with major shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean to jointly develop 200-foot autonomous surface vessels

What sets them apart

HavocAI's autonomy is already well proven. The company has logged more than 25,000 hours of autonomous testing and delivered more than 30 unmanned vessels to the U.S. military.

Its software lets mixed teams of boats, drones, and ground vehicles organize themselves and carry out complex missions even when GPS is jammed or unavailable. HavocAI has demonstrated that capability in GPS-denied environments for Ukrainian officials, who know drone warfare at sea firsthand.

Why it matters to the DIB

HavocAI started with the warfighter and built from there. It took the hard problem of controlling many unmanned vessels at once, made it simple enough for operators to use, and is now bringing that approach to the shipyard.

Who they are

Path Robotics builds AI-powered welding robots that help manufacturers keep up with demand as the pool of skilled welders keeps shrinking. Its robots take on the repetitive, high-volume welding work that is hardest to staff, so factories can produce more without waiting on talent they cannot find.

Path was founded in 2018 by brothers Andrew Lonsberry, the CEO, and Alex Lonsberry, the CTO, who grew up welding in their family garage in Ohio. They spotted the need for smarter welding robots while working on their PhDs.

Why they matter

Welding is critical in shipbuilding, where every hull depends on welders and there is a growing mandate for speed and volume. Path raised a $100M Series D in 2024, and in summer 2026 it signed a seven-year production agreement with HII, the nation's largest military shipbuilder, to complete up to $900M in shipbuilding work alongside fellow robotics company GrayMatter Robotics.

What sets them apart

Path's robots can weld parts they have never seen before. Traditional welding robots need a programmer to teach them every new part step by step, and they struggle when parts are not made to perfect tolerances. Path's system uses scanning and computer vision to understand each part and adjust on its own, cutting changeover time from days to minutes.

In shipbuilding, where structures vary widely from one job to the next, that flexibility is exactly what is needed.

Why it matters to the DIB

The skilled labor gap is one of the unglamorous bottlenecks holding the defense industrial base back. Path Robotics is helping close it across American manufacturing and is now bringing that capability to the shipyards building the Navy's fleet.

Who they are

For decades, cruise missiles have been precision tools that cost well over a million dollars apiece and were purchased in small numbers. Now the Pentagon wants thousands of them, fast. California-based Zone 5 Technologies is one of the companies making that possible. It designs low-cost cruise missiles, counter-drone interceptors, and other autonomous systems built from the ground up for high-volume production.

Zone 5 was founded in 2011 and has grown to hundreds of engineers, technicians, and support staff while staying consistently profitable. That track record caught the attention of Norway's Kongsberg, which acquired a 90% stake in June 2026. Zone 5 continues to operate as an independent subsidiary.

Why they matter

The contracts keep coming, including:

• A multiyear Pentagon agreement, signed in July 2026, to mass-produce low-cost cruise missiles under the new Family of Affordable Mass Missiles program
• A $12M Air Force award to scale up production
• A $65M Navy contract, added in August 2026, for a maritime strike version of the missile

What sets them apart

Zone 5 rethinks what a cruise missile needs to be. Its missile is a hybrid between a precision-guided bomb and a cruise missile, with a small turbojet engine for added range and navigation capability. It is built on an open hardware and software architecture, so new capabilities can be swapped in without starting from scratch, and it can be dropped from a cargo aircraft.

By pairing modern manufacturing with commercial technology, Zone 5 brings the cost down to around $246,000 per missile, roughly a tenth of what some Western cruise missiles cost. The Air Force integrated it onto the F-16 in only 72 hours.

Why it matters to the DIB

Zone 5 built steadily for more than a decade and was ready when the moment arrived. It is proving that affordable and effective do not have to be trade-offs, which is exactly what warfighters need right now.

Who they are

Before a rare earth magnet ends up in a missile, it passes through miners, refiners, metal makers, magnet makers, and motor builders. Each of those companies has its own vendors, software, and IT providers, and a cyberattack on any one of them can affect everyone else. Black Kite tracks cyber risk across all of those connections.

Black Kite was founded in 2016 by Candan Bolukbas, now the CTO, who worked as a certified ethical hacker for NATO. In that role he kept seeing attackers reach their real targets through smaller contractors, so he and his team built a platform to find vulnerable suppliers before attackers do. Black Kite returns to #Ones2Watch after appearing on our Spring 2025 and Spring 2026 lists.

Why they matter

Black Kite's research team helps security teams know what to fix first. In spring 2026, it reviewed the more than 48,000 vulnerabilities published in 2025 and found only 58 that posed a real threat to supply chains.

What sets them apart

Black Kite sees far down the supply chain. It maps a company's suppliers, then their suppliers, and keeps going out to fourth, fifth, and Nth parties. That reveals when many suppliers depend on the same software or service provider, so one breach there could hit all of them. Black Kite also:

• Maps the downstream impact when a vendor comes under attack, so teams can see who else is exposed
• Flags new threats tied to specific suppliers, giving teams time to act before a problem spreads

Why it matters to the DIB

Sentinel Blue spends a lot of time with the smaller companies in the defense supply chain, and they need protecting as much as the primes do, if not more. As the U.S. builds its own path from mine to missile, Black Kite helps everyone see which suppliers to support first.