Defense Tech Capital Brief // 007

Executive Analysis

Small attack drones now have a public price, and it falls on a schedule. That splits the drone market in two, and the halves should be valued differently.

Attack drones are now priced per unit.

This week the Pentagon's drone programme turned trial scores into orders: about 60,000 small first-person-view attack drones at roughly $5,000 each, a price it plans to cut to $2,300 by the programme's end. For the companies that make them, revenue is now a public number: units ordered times a falling price.

Neros's 14,000-drone order is worth about $70 million at today's price, and less at each later round. That is how a contract manufacturer is valued. Volume, unit cost and on-time delivery decide who wins.

Platforms are still priced on position and record.

The same week, Tekever raised $580 million at a $6.4 billion valuation, close to five times its mark of sixteen months ago. It makes long-range surveillance aircraft, holds a place on a British Army programme worth up to £400 million over ten years, and cites 50,000 flight hours in Ukraine.

None of that is published as a price or cut on a schedule, and Tekever has disclosed no revenue. The valuation holds as long as the programme position turns into income.

What it means. The first question about any drone company is now which market it sells into. Makers of cheap attack drones should be valued on volume, unit cost and delivery record. Platform makers can keep platform multiples, and investors should ask them for the revenue behind the position. Elsewhere, Europe added money where its companies have stalled: DTCP closed €450 million for growth-stage defence rounds, and the NATO Innovation Fund and In-Q-Tel, the US intelligence community's venture arm, backed a Swedish radio company at seed.

A small attack drone now has a public price, and it is falling. Value the companies that make them on volume and cost. Ask platform makers for revenue.

The Top Line

Drone Dominance puts a price on the score: about 60,000 drones at roughly $5,000 each, falling to $2,300.

• ~60,000: Small FPV drones to be ordered from Gauntlet II top performers
• $5,000 → $2,300: Programme unit price now, and its target by the programme's end
• ~$70M: Neros' order at the current unit price (14,000 drones), our arithmetic
• ~$300M: The 60,000 at today's price, our arithmetic; it shrinks as price steps down

RECORD. The Drone Dominance Program plans to order about 60,000 small first-person-view (FPV) attack drones from the top five companies in each Gauntlet II category. Company executives put Neros' expected order at 14,000 and British-Ukrainian Skycutter's at no fewer than 5,000. Vector has a 5,000-drone order. Swarm Defense announced on 22 September a 4,000-drone order with a minimum value of $25 million, munitions included, after placing fifth in Deep Strike, the long-range attack category. Perennial Autonomy (the Deep Strike winner), XTEND, Hyperscale, ModalAI and the US arm of Orqa are also set to sign. Most order values are still in negotiation. After the fourth and final Gauntlet, the programme will order 150,000 more from the top five, taking total drones procured to 340,000. The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), which runs the trials, reported 1,858 sorties across 23 platforms from 19 companies, and every one of the 11 long-range platforms reached 15 km, against 24% reaching 10 km in Gauntlet I. The next stage, Gauntlet 2.5, covers reusable bomber and dropper drones, with about $32 million in initial prototype orders.

ASSESSMENT. Last week the programme's data separated a test score from an accepted delivery. This week the score became quantity. Neros, which is strong on both, gets the largest reported order. Perennial, which led Deep Strike with no accepted Gauntlet I units as of 10 September, is set to sign anyway. On the evidence so far, the programme allocates first on score and rewards delivery with bonus orders. Swarm Defense's floor works out to about $6,250 a drone with munitions, consistent with a $5,000 airframe. A 54% cut in unit price over the programme's life is what hardware margins in this category now have to absorb.

Bottom line. Companies priced on Gauntlet placings should now be read against their order size multiplied by a falling price.

WHAT TO WATCH. Signed Gauntlet II contract values against the ~$5,000 reference, and the unit price set for Gauntlet 2.5.

EVIDENCE GRADE. [ REPORTED · programme totals, unit price ] · [ COMPANY-REPORTED · Neros, Skycutter, Vector, Swarm quantities; Swarm floor ] · [ ASSESSED · allocation logic, margin read ]

WHO THEY ARE.

• Programme. The Pentagon's roughly $1.1 billion effort to buy small one-way attack drones in volume through four competitive rounds (Gauntlets) scored by troops, run by the Defense Innovation Unit.
• Companies. Neros is a US FPV drone maker. Skycutter is a British-Ukrainian drone company. Swarm Defense is a Detroit manufacturer spun out of Firefly Drone Shows.

Procurement · ~60,000 units · Drones · Attritable · US

Tekever raises $580M at $6.4B: a 4.8x mark in sixteen months, with no revenue disclosed.

• $580M: Series D first close, the majority of the planned raise
• $6.4B: Valuation, against $1.32B after the May 2025 raise
• ≤ £400M: CORVUS ceiling over ten years, a ceiling and not an obligation
• 50,000+: Flight hours in Ukraine since 2022, company-reported
• Amount: $580M
• Type: Series D · first close
• Co-Leads: UC Investments · Baillie Gifford
• Source: Company release

RECORD. Tekever raised $580 million in the first close of its Series D at a $6.4 billion valuation, announced 23 September. UC Investments, the University of California's investment office, and Baillie Gifford led. It is UC Investments' first direct investment in Europe. Merlyn Advisors, where former UK Defence Secretary Sir Ben Wallace is a portfolio manager, joined as a new strategic investor, and existing shareholders Crescent Cove, Ventura Capital and Iberis Capital participated. The company says further closes will follow over the coming months. Proceeds go to international expansion, industrial capacity and acquisitions. Chief executive Ricardo Mendes told Bloomberg he expects heavy consolidation in defence technology. Tekever bought Scottish heavy-lift drone company Flowcopter earlier this month. It was valued at $1.32 billion after its May 2025 raise. The round follows the UK Ministry of Defence's selection of Tekever's AR5 for CORVUS, the British Army's programme to replace its Watchkeeper surveillance drone.

ASSESSMENT. The valuation rests on two things the record supports, operating hours in the war and a named UK programme position, and one it does not show, the income those produce. For comparison, Shield AI's reported $20 billion target sits at about 37 times its projected 2026 revenue of $540 million. Tekever's multiple can't be computed from public information, which is the gap an allocator should close first. A US university endowment and pension manager making its first direct European investment in a drone company shows American institutional capital moving from fund commitments to direct positions in European defence. And a buyer stating acquisition intent with fresh capital puts Tekever on the acquirer side of the European autonomy market, where it has already started with Flowcopter.

Bottom line. Tekever is now priced as a consolidator. The first thing to test is the revenue under the mark.

WHAT TO WATCH. Pricing of the next Series D close, disclosed CORVUS orders, and Tekever's next acquisition.

EVIDENCE GRADE. [ COMPANY-REPORTED · amount, valuation, investors, proceeds, flight hours ] · [ REPORTED · CORVUS value, prior valuation ] · [ SINGLE-SOURCED · Mendes on consolidation ] · [ ASSESSED · multiple, investor-mix and M&A read ]

WHO THEY ARE.

• Who. Founded in 2001 in Lisbon by Ricardo Mendes and fellow engineering students, Tekever began in distributed-systems software and moved into drones around 2009. It builds aircraft in Portugal and at a factory in Swindon, UK.
• Makes. Surveillance drones, from the hand-launched AR4 to the AR3, a small fixed-wing aircraft flown by Ukraine's forces, and the AR5, a 7-metre fixed-wing aircraft that flies 20 hours carrying 50 kg of sensors and relays over satellite. It also sells the data its drones collect as a subscription intelligence service.
• Who Buys. The British Army (AR5, under CORVUS), the UK Home Office for English Channel patrols, Ukraine, the European Maritime Safety Agency and Portugal's armed forces.
• Distinct. It sells surveillance. Where European peers such as Helsing and Quantum Systems have moved toward strike systems and battlefield software, Tekever's business is watching and reporting, over land and sea.

Venture round · Series D · Drones · Surveillance · Portugal · UK

Ukraine in Focus

With Defender Media.

Half of SkyFall's first Pentagon order has shipped, and it has placed again.

RECORD. SkyFall's Shrike 10-FCV, built for this round and entered with British partner SkyCutter, finished fourth in Deep Strike with 66.6 points, qualifying for a Pentagon supply contract. It is the entry behind the Skycutter order in the Top Line above. The drone pairs fibre-optic and radio links with a final-approach guidance system developed in-house. In Gauntlet I its Shrike 10-F won with 99.3 points and a 2,560-drone contract, of which 1,280 had shipped as of 19 September per the programme site. SkyFall is the only Ukrainian company to place in both rounds. It also announced a training partnership with Canada's Calian Group for NATO and allied forces. [ REPORTED · deliveries per programme site ]

ASSESSMENT. Delivery is what the programme now tests, and SkyFall's record is half an order shipped. A Ukrainian producer selling through a British partner is the nearest thing yet to a repeatable route into US volume buying.

Programme placing · Strike drones · Ukraine · UK · US

Skyeton wins direct US Army money through its US subsidiary.

Skyeton Inc., the US subsidiary of Ukrainian drone maker Skyeton, won a $10.64 million fixed-price Army contract on 18 September for Raybird long-endurance surveillance drones and services, with delivery due around 15 December. The Pentagon's notice records one bid. Raybird flies for more than 28 hours over a range above 2,500 km. At roughly $1.2 million a unit, an estimate since no unit price was disclosed, the award covers fewer than ten aircraft. Skyeton has supplied Ukraine's forces since 2018 and in 2025 opened production in Slovakia and a UK joint venture with Prevail Partners. The contract is small; the subsidiary route into US buying is the precedent. [ REPORTED · unit price is an estimate ]

WHAT TO WATCH. Whether Skyeton's single-bid award leads to a follow-on order after the December delivery.

• 1,280 / 2,560: SkyFall Gauntlet I drones shipped against contract, as of 19 September
• 66.6: SkyFall's Gauntlet II Deep Strike score, fourth place
• $10.64M: Skyeton's fixed-price Army award, one bid received
• < 10: Raybird aircraft the award covers, on an estimated unit price

Swarmer's air defence MoU is with a buyer it partly owns.

The week's one Ukrainian-origin deal with terms, and the terms bind no one.

• Implied Value: $600–720M
• Type: MoU · non-binding
• Buyer: Vectus (20% Swarmer)
• Source: Company release

RECORD. Nasdaq-listed Swarmer signed a memorandum of understanding on 23 September with Vectus Air Defense Systems, which Erik Prince formed with Swarmer last month and in which Swarmer holds 20%. Swarmer would build a plant in Poland for mobile air defence systems at about $5 million to $6 million each, designed against jet-powered versions of the Iranian-designed Shahed drone. Vectus intends to buy at least 40 systems in the first year of production and 80 or more in the second. Quantities, pricing, financing and schedules are left to definitive agreements. The implied value is our arithmetic. [ DOCUMENTED · company release ]

ASSESSMENT. Discount the headline twice: the document binds no one, and the buyer is 20% owned by the seller. What is real is the production plan. Ukrainian air defence know-how built on NATO soil for a third-party buyer is a template to watch as Kyiv rewrites its export rules.

MoU · non-binding · Air defense · Counter-drone · US · Ukraine · Poland

Finland becomes Ukraine's eleventh Drone Deal partner.

Presidents Zelenskyy and Stubb signed a Drone Deal, Ukraine's bilateral template for co-producing drones with partner states, on 24 September. Australia, Turkey and Canada are next, Canada's expected during the UN General Assembly. No funding or volumes were published; capital follows when a framework names a project. [ REPORTED · President's Office ]

Industry asks Kyiv to cut the export fee, and parliament has left it in place.

Industry groups led by the Ukrainian Council of Arms Manufacturers asked the Cabinet to revise Resolution No. 875, the export regime in force since 1 July, which has produced about ten small orders. They want the licence fee, now 20% on finished goods and 30% on components, cut to zero or 5%, collected after delivery, and the UAH 15 million contract minimum dropped. On 15 September Ukraine's parliament declined to earmark the fee for the army and left it in place. A 20% to 30% levy is a direct haircut on the export case behind most Ukrainian defence valuations. [ REPORTED ]

Also: Danish funds Final Frontier and Myriad Defence are merging and target a €100 million Fund II for pre-seed and seed companies in Ukraine and the Nordic-Baltic region. No close yet. [ REPORTED ]

WHAT TO WATCH. Whether the Cabinet revises the fee before year-end. Until it does, value Ukrainian producers on domestic and co-production revenue.

• 20% / 30%: Export licence fee on finished goods and on components
• UAH 15M: Contract minimum, about $337,000, that blocks demonstration shipments
• 11: Drone Deal frameworks Ukraine has signed
• €100M: Final Frontier Fund II target, no close announced

The Round

The remaining capital items, numbered from 02. Terms tabled; the source of the terms named.

02 · DTCP closes €450M for Europe's growth-stage gap.

A Series B-and-later mandate, aimed where European defence rounds have stalled.

• Amount: €450M
• Type: Fund · first close
• Anchors: Deutsche Telekom · Porsche SE
• Source: Trade report

RECORD. DTCP announced a €450 million first close for DTCP Defence Fund I on 24 September, against a €500 million target set in January. The fund's named investors are Deutsche Telekom, Porsche SE, Denmark's Export and Investment Fund (EIFO), Danica and Estonia's SmartCap. The fund invests across stages, mostly Series B and later, in European and other NATO-member companies. It has already invested in Kraken's July round and Six Robotics, with a third deal in progress. Ole Aguirre and Georgia Watson lead a dedicated defence and resilience team. [ REPORTED ]

ASSESSMENT. Europe's defence financing problem has sat at the growth stage, where rounds get too large for early-stage funds and too early for industrial buyers. A €450 million vehicle with a Series B-and-later mandate is aimed at that stage. Two corporate anchors with industrial balance sheets also give portfolio companies a route to manufacturing partners. The fund closed more than a year after it was first reported, which says something about how slowly LP commitments convert even in a year of record deal volume.

SO WHAT. For European founders past seed, this is a new source of the growth rounds that have been hardest to raise in Europe. For LPs, a year from first report to first close is the timeline to plan on.

Fund close · Growth · Multi-domain · Germany · EU

03 · TERASi's €11M seed puts NATO's fund and In-Q-Tel on one cap table.

Hard-to-jam point-to-point links, funded to prove they can be built in volume.

• Amount: €11M
• Type: Seed
• Co-Leads: NATO Innovation Fund · JOIN Capital
• Source: Trade report

WHO THEY ARE.

• Does. Builds smartphone-sized directional radios that send narrow, high-bandwidth beams between two points at millimetre-wave frequencies.
• Distinct. Uses commercial telecom and automotive chipsets, not bespoke military silicon.

RECORD. TERASi raised an €11 million seed round co-led by the NATO Innovation Fund and JOIN Capital, with In-Q-Tel and D3 joining as new investors. Existing backers Navigare Ventures, Almi Invest, Onsight Ventures, Further Than Capital and KTH Ventures returned. Proceeds go to industrialising production of its RU1 radio and expanding into the US, Ukraine and the Nordics. [ REPORTED ]

ASSESSMENT. A seed round with both NATO's fund and the US intelligence community's venture arm on the cap table is rare. Links that are hard to detect and jam address a gap Ukraine has made obvious. Hardware at this stage still has to prove it can be built in volume, which is what the round funds.

SO WHAT. When NATO's fund and In-Q-Tel both back a company at seed, US and allied buyers have signalled demand early. Watch whether TERASi's next round prices as a hardware company or as a pre-qualified supplier.

Venture round · Seed · Communications · Jam-resistant links · Sweden

04 · Mesa Quantum raises $11.8M for chip-scale navigation without GPS.

• Amount: $11.8M
• Type: Venture · letter undisclosed
• Lead: Playground Global
• Source: Single outlet

RECORD. Mesa Quantum raised $11.8 million led by Playground Global, with DCVC and J2 Ventures participating, bringing total funding to nearly $16 million. Proceeds go to development and production of chip-scale quantum sensors for navigation, timing and synchronisation without GPS. Announced 24 September. [ SINGLE-SOURCED ]

ASSESSMENT. GPS-denied navigation came up repeatedly this week, including in two of Ondas' three acquisitions. Quantum sensing for navigation and timing has a clear military buyer. What it needs to show is manufacturing at chip scale, which is where the money goes.

SO WHAT. Navigation that works without GPS is now a buying requirement in drones, weapons and acquisitions like Ondas'. Investors should tie quantum navigation valuations to manufacturing milestones.

Venture round · Quantum · Navigation · US

05 · SYOS Aerospace takes its first outside money after a £30M order.

• Amount: Undisclosed
• Type: Convertible note
• Co-Leads: NZVC · Outset Ventures
• Source: Single outlet

RECORD. New Zealand-founded SYOS Aerospace closed a convertible note round co-led by NZVC and Outset Ventures, with Altered Capital and undisclosed strategic funds, announced 22 September. It had been funded from revenue. SYOS reports a £30 million UK Ministry of Defence drone order for Ukraine and a New Zealand Defence Force contract, and builds air, maritime, ground and interceptor systems. [ COMPANY-REPORTED · order values ]

ASSESSMENT. A company that reached a £30 million order before taking outside money is a revenue-first profile that will price differently from the platform rounds above. The order should be carried as company-reported until a UK notice appears.

SO WHAT. A convertible note defers the price. The £30 million order, once confirmed by a UK notice, will set it, which makes the notice the thing to watch.

Venture round · Convertible · Multi-domain unmanned · New Zealand · UK

06 · Exit: Ondas buys three Israeli businesses for $56M, a third of it at risk.

• Amount: ~$56M + ≤$32M earnout
• Type: M&A · cash or stock
• Acquirer: Ondas (Nasdaq: ONDS)
• Source: SEC filing

RECORD. Ondas acquired Insignito, Ottopia Defense and Caribou Labs on 23 September for about $56 million in cash or stock, plus up to $32 million in earnouts through 2028. The three add acoustic drone detection, communications and remote control for unmanned systems, and navigation for GPS-denied environments. On the same day Ondas registered 7.8 million shares for resale, most of them issued as consideration for these deals. [ DOCUMENTED ]

ASSESSMENT. Ondas continues to buy with its own stock. The larger Nirosta deal, which would test how far Israeli defence manufacturing has re-rated, remains unsigned.

SO WHAT. For Israeli founders, Ondas is a live stock-paid exit route. Sellers should value the earnout at a discount, since more than a third of the price depends on milestones through 2028.

M&A · Exit · Counter-drone · Navigation · Autonomy · US · Israel

The Contract Column

Awards, notifications and industrial commitments that set the demand behind the week's capital.

Drone Dominance · Gauntlet II orders · ~60,000 units

See the Top Line. Every value reported so far is either a unit-price estimate or a company-disclosed floor. Nothing has been obligated at a published contract value yet.

SO WHAT. Until signed values appear, treat any company valuation built on a Gauntlet order as a quantity times an estimate.

GHOST-R · True Anomaly and Northrop Grumman · DIU / Space Systems Command · 18 September

The Defense Innovation Unit and Space Systems Command picked True Anomaly and Northrop Grumman to build GEO reconnaissance prototypes. The satellites will watch other satellites in geostationary orbit (GEO), the belt about 36,000 km up where the most valuable military and commercial satellites sit. Prototypes launch in 2028. Successful ones have a direct path into RG-XX, a multibillion-dollar Space Force programme of record, meaning a budgeted line funded year over year, with operational platforms targeted for 2029. Contract values were not disclosed. For a venture-backed space company, a named transition path into a programme of record is the milestone growth capital prices on, and here it arrives with a prime as the head-to-head competitor. Watch for the transition decision, which is where the money is. [ DOCUMENTED · DIU release; values undisclosed ]

SO WHAT. True Anomaly now competes head-to-head with a prime for a programme of record. That transition decision, expected around 2029, is what its growth investors are underwriting.

Prototype award · Space · Surveillance · US

Hanwha Defense USA · $2.2B · Pine Bluff Arsenal · 21 September

Hanwha Defense USA committed $2.2 billion to a munitions campus on Army land at Pine Bluff Arsenal in Arkansas, leased under an arrangement signed in January, as it opened the site's administrative headquarters. The plant will make propellant charges for 155mm artillery shells, the standard NATO calibre, and create about 400 jobs over seven years. Local reporting puts the January figure at $1.3 billion. This is self-funded capex with no contract attached, a foreign prime financing US energetics capacity on its own balance sheet. For munitions and energetics startups, it sets the scale of the incumbent they sell into or compete against. [ COMPANY-REPORTED · prior figure reported ]

SO WHAT. A foreign prime is funding US artillery propellant capacity itself. Munitions startups should expect to sell components into this plant or compete with it on price.

Industrial investment · Munitions · Energetics · US · Korea

Ukraine air defence · two instruments · 18 September

The State Department notified Congress of a possible $2.7 billion sale to Ukraine of air defence missiles, launcher upgrade kits and counter-drone radars. A notification tells Congress a sale may go ahead, before any contract is signed. Ukraine would pay with European contributions and US Foreign Military Financing, grant money the US gives partners to buy US weapons, appropriated under the previous administration, and the State Department says that financing will count as a US capital contribution to the US-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund through 1:1 reimbursement. The sale still faces congressional review. The same day, the European Commission disbursed €3.3 billion for drones and missiles, the fourth payment from the defence window of the €90 billion Ukraine Support Loan. The EU payment is money moved. The US notification is permission to sell, with no contract, quantity or unit price until a letter of offer is signed. The financing clause is the new element: grant aid booked as a capital contribution to a joint investment fund turns US security assistance into a stake in Ukraine's reconstruction vehicle, and how the reimbursement flows in practice is not yet public. [ REPORTED · FMS notification ] [ DOCUMENTED · EU disbursement ]

SO WHAT. The EU money is spendable now, so Ukrainian and European drone and missile suppliers should see orders first. The US sale adds nothing to order books until a signed offer names quantities.

FMS notification · Disbursement · Air defense · Munitions · US · EU · Ukraine

Also Tracked

• The legal basis for Pentagon equity stakes. A White House budget office opinion cited the Defense Production Act, 2017 defence legislation and the president's constitutional powers to justify the Pentagon's first equity deal, reported 21 September. The Senate Armed Services Committee wants Congress to give the Office of Strategic Capital, the Pentagon's lending arm, explicit authority to take equity. Until it does, each stake rests on an executive-branch reading of existing law, which is a durability question for any company with the government on its cap table. [ SINGLE-SOURCED ]
• NATO DIANA Capital Network. DIANA, NATO's defence technology accelerator, named the first 24 investors in its capital network, 20 of them European, including Bpifrance, DTCP and Project A. Reported 21 September. [ REPORTED ]
• Laki Power · €6M · NATO Innovation Fund. The fund invested in the Icelandic grid-resilience company, reported 21 September. [ REPORTED ]
• UK–US AI and autonomy partnership. The two governments announced a defence partnership on AI and autonomous systems on 22 September. No funding attached in the reporting. [ REPORTED ]
• Hanwha Defense USA and Magnet. The pair plan to start production of medium-sized uncrewed boats this fall, reported 21 September. No contract value disclosed. Separate from the Pine Bluff investment in the Contract Column. [ REPORTED ]

Sourcing & Notices

On the sourcing. Every entry is dated inside the 18 – 24 September window. Amounts and valuations are taken from company announcements, SEC filings and trade reporting as of 24 September 2026. Order quantities for Drone Dominance come from company executives and have not been confirmed by the programme. Programme-level dollar totals are our arithmetic at the reported unit price. No public announcements surfaced from the week's New York National Security Forum; none are reported here. This brief reports flows. It doesn't introduce parties.

How to read an entry. RECORD: What the evidence shows, with its source named. ASSESSMENT: What we take it to mean. Ours, not the record's. EVIDENCE GRADE: How far the cited evidence carries the claim it follows. WHO THEY ARE: Company primer. Runs on first appearance only. TAG ROW: Type, segment and geography. A scanning aid; it adds no claim.

Evidence grades this issue.

• DOCUMENTED: Ondas acquisitions (SEC filing); GHOST-R awards (DIU release); Swarmer MoU (company release); EU €3.3 billion disbursement (Commission).
• REPORTED: Drone Dominance programme totals and unit price; CORVUS value; DTCP close; TERASi round; Skyeton contract; the State Department notification; Ukraine in Focus and Also Tracked items not graded otherwise.
• COMPANY-REPORTED: Drone Dominance order quantities and floors; Tekever amount, valuation and flight hours; Hanwha Pine Bluff investment; SYOS order values; all use-of-proceeds figures.
• SINGLE-SOURCED: Mesa Quantum (Tectonic); SYOS (Tectonic); Mendes on consolidation (Reuters, citing Bloomberg); Pentagon equity legal opinion (Semafor).

Terms used. Ceiling: the maximum a contract can pay, distinct from money obligated. Obligation: funds committed on a contract. First close: the first tranche of a round or fund, with more capital expected. Attritable: designed and priced to be lost in use, measured on cost per successful mission. FPV: first-person-view drone, flown through a live camera feed. Earnout: deal consideration paid later, contingent on milestones. Convertible note: a loan that turns into equity at the next priced round. Series B and later: growth-stage rounds, after a company has a product and early revenue. Programme of record: a budgeted line in the defense plan, funded year over year.

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