Arizona Secures Critical American Biofactory Hard Tech Headlines: - @regentcraft, the American seaglider startup, has successfully demonstrated its autonomous seaglider at Silent Swarm. It is the first defense-specific wing-in-ground-effect craft in U.S. history. - @Textron has secured a $230M+ deal with the U.S. Navy for two Ship-to-Shore Connectors, amphibious hovercraft designed to move troops, vehicles, and supplies from ships offshore directly onto beaches. - @Precigenetics, the startup developing real-time living-cell imaging technology, is expanding to a new biofactory in Arizona, where it plans to manufacture critical biohardware in the U.S. - @smackaistack has secured a $61M Series B led by Costanoa Ventures. Smack is developing a frontier AI lab for defense, enabling autonomy decisions to be made at the campaign level. The startup is using the funding to develop custom hardware to deploy its models on-prem. - @EdgeRunnerAI, in partnership with the U.S. Army’s AI2C, has introduced a new military-focused large language model that reduced error rates by 37% across Army-specific tasks and is designed to run locally at the tactical edge. - Grounded has raised a $5M seed round. The Detroit startup develops software-defined, modular commercial electric vehicles and is expanding production into a new 50,000-square-foot facility. - Eoptic, Inc., the advanced imaging firm, has secured a deal to supply multiple payloads for strategic space imaging programs, with first deliveries planned for early 2027. - @AerogenSystems has launched out of Y Combinator, developing self-cleaning infrastructure for semiconductor manufacturing that creates ultra-clean environments around wafers. - @saildrone has opened a European HQ in Copenhagen and is expanding USV production in Europe, including its next-generation Surveyor at Umoe Mandal’s facility in Norway. - Skanska and Stacy Witbeck secured a $2.43B contract to expand LA Metro’s rail infrastructure in the San Fernando Valley. - Einride is purchasing 500 Tesla Semi trucks, the largest Tesla Semi order in history. - The U.S. Army has awarded @elroyair $46M to advance autonomous heavy-lift aircraft for moving cargo across contested environments. The VTOL can carry 500+ pounds of cargo, fly up to 450 miles, and operate without runways in austere environments. - @valinortech announced HarborPOD, designed to turn autonomous systems into casualty evacuation or resupply platforms. We break it down in today’s Hard Tech Headlines video.