Defense tech startups in the San Francisco Bay Area

Designs and operates LEO satellite constellations on its Halo platform for Earth observation, wildfire detection and national security missions.

Builds Spike, a counter-drone system pairing a Spotter sensor with Seeker, a 250-gram tube-launched interceptor drone for small FPV threats.

Builds Archimedes, a lightweight high-energy laser turret combining machine vision and radar to shoot down drones, with operations in San Francisco and Detroit.

Builds ParallaxOS, hardware-agnostic software that fuses radars, RF detectors, cameras and effectors into one counter-drone picture.

Builds low-cost Mako underwater drones, the Leviathan surface mothership and the Kraken recovery system for ocean ISR and seabed missions.

Builds autonomous small drones such as the X10D for defense, public safety and infrastructure, with production at a factory in Hayward, California.

Trains Fury, a defense vision-language-action foundation model that lets operators command fleets of drones and ground robots in natural language.

Builds wind and solar powered uncrewed surface vehicles, from the Explorer to the larger Surveyor and Voyager, for maritime surveillance and ocean data.

Provides AI training data, model evaluation and generative AI platforms for commercial customers and governments, including the US Department of Defense.

Supplies vehicle software, simulation and autonomy stacks for automotive, trucking and defense, including uncrewed ground, air and maritime systems.

Makes the Frontline Perception System, edge machine learning software that lets soldiers build and run target recognition models on local sensor data.

Makes a visual navigation system, hardware and software, that gives any military drone position and heading without GPS by matching camera views to map data.

Develops AI models that turn ordinary low-light cameras into digital night vision, as a cheaper alternative to image-intensifier goggles.

Builds AI software that collects and analyzes foreign-language open source and other data to give military and intelligence users battlefield and strategic insight.

Operates a global network of ground-based phased array radars that track objects in low Earth orbit for space domain awareness and missile defense.

Founder-owned launch company developing Rocket 4 and a mobile launch system for responsive national security launch, plus spacecraft engines.