Defense tech startups in Los Angeles

Builds low-cost mid-range interceptor missiles assembled from readily available components, targeting 1,000 systems per year per factory.

Builds AI readiness and decision software for military maintenance, materiel, personnel and supply chain, grown out of Caltech and NASA JPL research.

Builds low-cost strike weapons including the Viper one-way attack vehicle and a vertical-takeoff cruise missile, with in-house propulsion and energetics.

Mass-produces low-cost Archer FPV strike drones and the Bandit interceptor with a vertically integrated, NDAA-compliant component stack.

Runs highly automated precision machining factories that produce aerospace, missile and submarine components for primes and the US Navy.

Develops low-cost, mass-producible hypersonic strike weapons, led by the Blackbeard missile, with in-house solid rocket motor production in New Mexico.

Develops a low-cost, ground-launched missile interceptor to defeat drones and missiles, building most subsystems in house.

Designs and builds wire harnesses for aircraft, spacecraft, satellites and defense systems with software-driven design and automated assembly.

Builds large, high-power satellite buses designed for mass production, aimed at defense and commercial missions across LEO, MEO and GEO.

Makes low-cost turbojet engines, starting with a 100-pound-thrust class engine, for attritable cruise missiles and unmanned aircraft.

Mass-produces standardized satellite buses for government and commercial constellations, including the Aries and Nova platforms.

Builds Legion, an open integration and data fusion layer that connects sensors, effectors and autonomous systems from different vendors.

Builds ground-based optical telescopes, laser communications ground stations and in-space payloads for space domain awareness, with manufacturing in Detroit.

Builds autonomous precision munitions for air and sea that operate in jammed, GPS-denied environments, produced in Los Angeles and Oslo.

Builds the Lattice software platform and autonomous systems, from air defense and counter-drone interceptors to uncrewed aircraft and undersea vehicles, plus high-rate manufacturing.

Builds DROID spacecraft for rendezvous, proximity operations and space domain awareness, plus surveillance payloads and Starfire mission software.

Develops uncrewed high-Mach aircraft and turbine-based combined cycle propulsion, flying the Quarterhorse series toward supersonic and Mach 3 flight for defense customers.

Forms sheet metal structures with AI-guided robotic RoboCraftsman cells without dies or molds, for missiles, hypersonics, aircraft and vehicles.

Builds Portal, a mass-producible multi-beam phased array ground station network, to connect satellites for government and commercial operators.

Develops high-temperature resins, carbon-carbon thermal protection and composite materials for hypersonic glide bodies, rocket motors and aircraft.

Develops the Coherent Distributed Network and Vanquish radars that detect small drones and other aerial threats faster for military operators.

Operates an AI-driven additive manufacturing and assembly system that produces structures for missiles, drones and vehicles for defense primes.

Builds orbital capsules that reenter Earth's atmosphere, used for in-space manufacturing and as recoverable hypersonic flight testbeds for the Air Force.

Builds in-space transportation vehicles, the Mira and Helios orbital transfer vehicles, for rapid delivery of payloads including defense missions to LEO and GEO.

Builds software-defined electronic warfare hardware and software, including the Wraith airborne EW platform, to contest the electromagnetic spectrum.

Builds Leonidas, a solid-state, software-defined high-power microwave system that disables drone swarms and electronics.

Builds Arc, an autonomous reentry vehicle that stores cargo in orbit and delivers it anywhere on Earth for military logistics and hypersonic testing.

Provides space domain awareness data, a global optical sensor network and the Beacon coordination tool for government and commercial satellite operators.

Runs a digital investment casting foundry that prints casting patterns from design files to make superalloy parts without hard tooling.

Formerly ABL Space Systems, now builds missile defense systems and hypersonic flight test vehicles after pivoting from small launch in 2025.