4 Defense Innovation Reforms; Terra Adds $22M to Build Out Africa’s First Defense Prime

INNOVATION

Defense tech roadmap: Five frontiers for 2026 - Bessemer Venture Partners

Defense tech has advanced more in the past twenty-four months than in the previous three decades, with startups leading the charge on key pillars of innovation.

The second valley of death

Building hardware is hard. Everyone knows it. Most hardware companies don’t even make it to product-market fit. And for those that survive, there’s a second valley waiting: the gap between making a few prototypes and producing thousands of units. This is where companies either fade away or become generational. Successfully scaling production is what separates the two.

INVESTMENT

Terra bags $22M more to build out Africa’s first defence prime

The Nigerian startup, which closed out its seed at $34M, is now valued in the 'nine figures' after a surge of inbound interest

Construction begins on new space and defense technology facility at PuebloPlex

Construction is now underway on a new space and defense technology facility in Pueblo County. Denver-based Voyager Technologies is building a manufacturing, operations and testing complex at PuebloPlex. That’s the site of the former U.S. Army Pueblo Chemical Depot that closed a couple of years ago.

European defence, security and resilience startups raised a record $8.7B in 2025

As you might expect, the current moment of geopolitical upheaval — punctuated by the ongoing war in Ukraine and a hardening sovereignty stance among superpowers — has directly intersected with the rapid pace of tech development and venture money fuelling smaller innovators. The result is an all-time high for venture activity in defence, security and resilience.

TECHNOLOGY

Flight tests validate mix-and-match approach to robot-wingman autonomy

The Air Force is using the A-GRA framework on its collaborative combat aircraft.

POLICY

Will These Four Defense Innovation Reforms Improve Industry’s Lot?

When everyone is accountable, who is actually responsible?

I can’t help but think of this question as I consider the flurry of new top-down activity on acquisition reform and modernization. In January 2026, the Defense Department and White House released four new initiatives: two memorandums on the defense innovation system and AI, an executive order on defense industry standards, and a new pilot program outlining no-fee commercial evaluation licenses. These initiatives are the latest in a series of acquisition and process reforms designed to transform how the Pentagon operates and does business with industry.

EUROPE

Quantum Systems Secures €150M ($178M) in Financing

Well, the European drone dudes certainly aren’t messing around at the Munich Security Conference.

The Sound of Munich: Autonomy, Anxiety, and the Twilight of Transatlantic Order

Munich was warmer than Washington this weekend, both in weather and in sentiment. Neither development was widely forecast. The sense of crisis in transatlantic relations was plain, especially on the European side, and the world descended on the Bayerischer Hof hotel to sort it all out. At the Munich Security Conference there was beer to drink, brats to eat, statements to make, and bilateral meetings to hold. February’s foreign policy freneticism kicked off in earnest.

And frenetic it was. Bilateral meetings were set at 25 minutes apiece and the most hyperactive delegates kept them shorter than that. Heads of state and foreign ministers mingled while the rest of us were jostled by their security details. One Middle Eastern official suggested a walking meeting. He and I weaved through delegations, passed the smoking section under a light rain, trudged up and down a metal staircase, and finally parted at the elevator. It was actually rather productive.

February 16th 2026