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Defense tech glossary

A

  1. AFWERXDARPA, DIU, AFWERX, xTech: the Pentagon has many doors for startups, and they sell different things. Pick by what your product is ready for
  2. Android Tactical Assault KitATAK became the standard because the US government gave it away, and its real strength is the format every device now speaks
  3. Anduril IndustriesAnduril looks like a weapons maker, but its core is Lattice, and Ukraine showed what its data had not yet seen
  4. APFITAn innovation award is a lead, not a customer. How a defense startup checks that money for production exists before it applies
  5. Archer artillery systemThe Archer artillery system: in a war watched by drones, the seconds spent in position matter more than the range
  6. Army Tactical Missile SystemATACMS in Ukraine: a missile limited less by its engineering than by permission and stock
  7. AS9100Get AS9100 first, says the standard advice. For most drone companies it is the wrong first step. Build the system, and certify when a buyer asks.
  8. Autonomous Warfare CommandProject Meridian gets the headlines. For a defense-tech founder, the Autonomous Warfare Command is the part that matters.

B

  1. Blue UAS Cleared ListThe Blue UAS list is turning the US drone market into a protected industry. How a drone gets on it, and what that buys.
  2. Brave1Brave1 sells speed, not grants: how Ukraine's defense cluster turned startups into an industry, and what could slow it

C

  1. CMMCCMMC is paused, not cancelled. Eight questions a drone company should answer while the clock is stopped.
  2. Commercial Solutions OpeningSBIR, STTR, an OTA or a DIU call are four different kinds of thing. Which one fits a defense hardware company, and which one leads to production.
  3. cost-exchange ratioCost-exchange ratio: the number Western air defense has to start designing to

D

  1. Danish modelThree ways Western money and partners reach Ukrainian defense producers, and what each one leaves out
  2. deemed exportsThe export happens when the file opens. What to settle before a US drone company shares its designs with Ukrainian engineers.
  3. Defence CityDefence City is Ukraine competing for capital: the tax regime for weapons makers, and the reinvestment rule that defines it
  4. Defense Advanced Research Projects AgencyDARPA does not buy products. A startup wins there by answering one program manager's hard question, and has to find its customer somewhere else
  5. defense data productHow I evaluate a defense data product: as a system that holds data, before it is a business model
  6. Defense Innovation UnitThe Defense Innovation Unit sells a startup a prototype, and the prize is the production deal that can follow without a new competition
  7. DELTA combat systemDELTA, Ukraine's battlefield system, is less a map than a ledger, and the ledger now decides what gets bought
  8. DJI MavicDJI is the most important defense company that says it is not one
  9. DOT-Chain DefenceDefense tech go-to-market: who actually buys, in what order, and how long each clock runs
  10. Drone DealsUkraine’s Drone Deals, the format that turns battlefield experience into ten-year contracts
  11. Drone DominanceDrone Dominance is an experiment in how the Pentagon buys, not only in what it buys

E

  1. Executive Order 14307Executive Order 14307, the order behind America’s drone push, and what it has actually delivered

F

  1. Family of Affordable Mass MissilesFAMM and LCCM, the two programs through which the Pentagon is buying cheap cruise missiles by the thousand
  2. FAST agreementThe FAST agreement: the free template that sets startup advisor equity, and when not to use it
  3. fiber-optic FPV dronesFiber-optic FPV drones beat jamming by going back to a wire, and moved the bottleneck to glass
  4. FREYJAFREYJA puts a Ukrainian company at the center of Europe's missile defense. Whether it works will decide more than air defense.

G

  1. Geran-5The Geran-5 and the end of the cheap-drone era: Russia's jet Shahed, and why only 57% are shot down
  2. Geran-5 K5The Geran-5 K5 is not Russian ingenuity. It is a 1970s navigation trick bolted on because Ukraine's jamming works.
  3. Gerbera-2Gerbera-2 turns Russia's decoy drone into an arsonist, and the number that matters is not the warhead
  4. GlobalEyeGlobalEye: NATO chose a European radar on a business jet when the American plan fell apart, and that says how Europe now buys
  5. Golden Dome for AmericaGolden Dome is sold as a shield over America, and its real center is the first fleet of weapons in orbit
  6. Gripen EThe Gripen is a logistics system that happens to fly, and that is why it suits Ukraine
  7. Ground-Based InterceptorsGBI and NGI: America's only shield against an intercontinental missile was never tested enough, because each test costs more than $200 million
  8. Ground-Launched Small Diameter BombGLSDB in Ukraine: two combat-proven parts did not make a combat-proven weapon

H

  1. HelsingHelsing's $18 billion bet: a defense software company only matters once it builds the weapon
  2. HIMARSHIMARS in Ukraine: the Western weapon that kept working because its makers kept changing it

I

  1. Incoterms 2020Incoterms explained for buyers: the three letters that decide what your supplier's price really includes
  2. InokhodetsThe Orion drone failed as Russia’s copy of the Predator and became a carrier for cheap missiles fired at Ukraine. That shift says where expensive drones are heading.
  3. interceptor dronesUkraine’s interceptor drones turned air defense into a manufacturing problem. The next limits are speed and people.
  4. IRIS-T SLMIRIS-T and the factory limit of Western air defense: why the system that works is the one you cannot get
  5. ISM Manufacturing PMIThe ISM Manufacturing PMI explained: what the monthly index says, and the parts a buyer should actually read
  6. ITARITAR and EAR, the two US export regimes every defense-tech startup falls under before it knows it
  7. ITAR-freeAn ITAR-free drone is decided at the bill of materials. How to build one, line by line, and what proof to keep.

J

  1. JDAM-ERJDAM-ER in Ukraine: why a cheap guidance kit mattered more than the bomb, and what Russian jamming exposed
  2. JIATF-401The Pentagon's counter-drone directed energy pilot, read line by line, and what it means for a company that wants in

K

  1. KalibrsThe Kalibr cruise missile and the half-life of an expensive weapon
  2. Kh-101sThe Kh-101 and Russia’s two-ended arsenal: why the most expensive missile grows alongside the cheapest drone
  3. Kometa-M8Kometa, the Russian antenna that keeps cheap drones and missiles on course under jamming
  4. KropyvaKropyva has kept Ukraine's artillery data fast and correct on an offline tablet for twelve years, and that is why crews still trust it

L

  1. Long WallLong Wall's Cyclops: whoever makes intercepts above the atmosphere cheap will change the arms race, in orbit as well as on Earth

M

  1. M1A1 AbramsAbrams tanks in Ukraine: a $10 million tank that has to hide from a $500 drone, and the market that creates
  2. M270A2The M270 in Ukraine: a 1980s launcher that matters because of what it fires, and what that says about platforms
  3. M982 ExcaliburThe Excalibur shell in Ukraine: a precision weapon that lost to a jammer, and what that says about buying precision
  4. maritime dronesUkraine pushed Russia's fleet out of Sevastopol with cheap maritime drones. Investors are funding expensive ones. Both are right, for different buyers.

N

  1. NATO Innovation FundThe NATO Innovation Fund, a €1 billion venture fund owned by 24 governments
  2. NCAGERegistering to sell to the Pentagon takes days. Choosing the route takes the real decision. A guide for European and Ukrainian companies.

O

  1. Operation Spider's WebOperation Spider's Web: the raid that ended distance as a defense

P

  1. PAC-3 MSEPatriot: the best answer to a ballistic missile, and the worst thing to spend on a drone
  2. Palantir TechnologiesPalantir sells defense the place where decisions get made, and in Ukraine it is becoming the place where AI gets trained
  3. Part 107A defense drone company flies under two sets of rules in the US. Part 107 covers most of the work, and it stops exactly where the weapon begins

Q

  1. Quantum Frontline IndustriesGerman-Ukrainian defense joint ventures: who builds what, where, and who pays
  2. Quantum SystemsQuantum Systems bought what no German factory can make: combat feedback from Ukraine

R

  1. Resolution No. 875Five flaws in Ukraine’s arms export mechanism, and what each one does to a deal
  2. Rotax 912Choosing an engine for a small aircraft or a large drone: write the requirement before you open the catalogue

S

  1. S-METUkraine's procurement agency now buys ground robots by specification, not by brand. What that and the US Army's S-MET ask of a logistics UGV
  2. S8000 BanderolRussia’s Banderol cruise missile, a parcel built from parts anyone could order
  3. SaabSweden did not build its defense industry through open competition. It built it through a deal, and Ukraine should study the deal.
  4. SBA 7(a)SBA 7(a) loans for buying a business: how the program works, and how it shapes the deal you can do
  5. Section 848"NDAA-compliant" means four different tests. Section 848 line by line, and what the 2025 rules added.
  6. Security Action for EuropeSAFE and EDIP are industrial policy first: how the EU's defence money works and who it is designed to grow
  7. Shahed-136The Shahed drone is a factory, not an aircraft: how a simple Iranian design turned air defense into a production race
  8. Sky FortressSky Fortress, the air-defense network built from phones on poles, and why the scarce thing in air defense is the track
  9. Sky SentinelSky Sentinel turrets on Kyiv's bridges: the hard question is not whether they hit, but where the bullets that miss go
  10. SkydioSkydio in Ukraine: a trusted drone is not a survivable drone, and the US market only certified the first
  11. small turbojetsUkraine's answer to the jet Shahed is held up by one part, and it is not the drone. It is the engine.
  12. STANAG 4671STANAG 4671 is an airworthiness code, not a certificate. What that means for a drone maker heading for NATO buyers
  13. STANAGsA STANAG is a standard, not a certificate. What that changes for a defense-tech company selling to a committee.
  14. Standard Missile-3SM-3: the only American interceptor proven against an ICBM-class target, a satellite and enemy missiles in combat, and why so few exist
  15. State Service for Export ControlDSEK, the Ukrainian regulator that stands between a foreign buyer and a Ukrainian weapon

T

  1. Terminal High Altitude Area DefenseTHAAD: a year and a half of production spent in twelve days, and what that says about defending against mass
  2. Test in UkraineHow to get a drone tested in Ukraine, and what to settle before it flies

U

  1. Ukraine Security Assistance InitiativeUSAI, the US program that buys new weapons for Ukraine from American industry
  2. unmanned ground vehiclesUkraine's ground robots by the numbers: 22,000 contracted, nearly 20,000 missions a month, and $77.6 million of European venture money

V

  1. verification matrixDrones fail acceptance on requirements nobody wrote down. A verification matrix, worked end to end, from the mission to the evidence.