We build factories For the West Deterring adversaries forever Surge-capable defense manufacturing depends on systems that can adapt. UNION has entered into a strategic partnership with X-Bow Systems to help build adaptive manufacturing capacity for solid rocket motors and propulsion subsystems. X-Bow brings modular propulsion production. UNION brings software-defined factory control. The objective is straightforward: Build faster reconfiguration pathways. Improve resilience. Support distributed defense production. prnewswire.com/news-releases… WIN. FOR THE WEST. #FactoriesAsAStockpile #MutuallyAssuredProduction #TheManufacturingPrime

We build factories For the West Deterring adversaries forever Rebuilding America’s energetics base is no longer a choice. It’s a geopolitical requirement. Modern conflict isn’t constrained by ideas. It’s constrained by production capacity. Adversaries are scaling—tonnage, throughput, time-to-field. The question is simple: Can the West produce factories at the speed of conflict? We’ve been operating inside one of the most constrained layers of the industrial base: propulsion manufacturing. The bottleneck isn’t demand. It’s disciplined, scalable production. Modern munitions demand will not be met by legacy factory infrastructure. Hypersonic and missile programs require: Agile factories that scale without losing control—ever. Advanced propellant production. Additive motor geometries. This is not a future problem. It’s a current constraint. Deterrence isn’t theoretical. It’s industrial. It’s factories. And rebuilding this base won’t happen alone. It requires alignment—partnering with those already solving critical pieces, and integrating systems to move faster, together. We’ve been building toward this reality. More soon. WIN. FOR THE WEST. #FactoriesAsAStockpile #MutuallyAssuredProduction #TheManufacturingPrime

UNION × NALAGX 155mm readiness depends on coordinated production. We’re partnering with NALAGX to align energetics supply, factory engineering, and software-enabled production systems. That is how stronger, more resilient defense manufacturing gets built. bit.ly/4uDJXKR

155mm readiness is not built in silos.

You do not strengthen production by treating energetics, factory engineering, and production control like separate problems.

They are one production system.

The issue is not just more capacity.
It is coordinated capacity with standards, traceability, and control.

That is how resilient defense manufacturing gets built.

We’ve been building toward a partnership that reflects that reality.

More tomorrow.

WIN. FOR THE WEST.

UNION has entered a strategic partnership with Hanwha Defense USA to advance allied artillery and ground-system manufacturing capacity. Modern primes × software-defined factory systems. Throughput. Redundancy. Resilience. Industrial depth is deterrence. WIN. FOR THE WEST.

Reindustrializing the West requires allied scale. Factory networks. Shared production standards. Surge-ready capacity. We’ve been building toward something aligned with that future. More soon. WIN. FOR THE WEST.

Range determines survivability, positioning, and who holds the advantage. Extended range 155 shifts the balance. And range is not a bolt on upgrade. The enhancements must be engineered and manufactured as one system. We’ve been working on a partnership grounded in this belief. More tomorrow. WIN. FOR THE WEST.

This is why we exist @UNION_Prime 🇺🇸🚀 We Engineer Factories. For the West. Deterring Adversaries Forever.

Hard Tech Headlines: 2025 Year in Review Headlines That Defined Hard Tech - @valaratomics has split the atom, becoming the first startup to reach this milestone. - @basepowerco, the new-age battery tech startup, has raised $1B. The startup is building out manufacturing capacity in Texas. The round was led by Addition. - @PsiQuantum has raised $1B in funding. The Palo Alto quantum computing firm is building systems in Chicago and Brisbane. BlackRock, Temasek, and Baillie Gifford served as the lead investors. - @anduriltech has announced EagleEye, a next-generation helmet system that integrates mission command and AI directly into the operator’s gear. Partners on the project include Meta, Oakley, Standard Issue, Qualcomm, Gentex, and OSI. - Korea Zinc Company, Ltd is launching Crucible JV LLC, a foreign joint venture supported by the U.S. government, to develop a $7.4 billion critical-minerals smelting facility in Tennessee aimed at strengthening domestic supply of rare and strategic materials. - @HadrianInc has raised a $260M Series C round led by Founders Fund and Lux Capital, launching its Factories-as-a-Service model and a new Hadrian Maritime division focused on shipbuilding and maritime defense. The company is also searching for a new corporate HQ. Separately, its factory three in Mesa, Arizona, will support 350 jobs across 270,000 square feet and is backed by a $200M investment. - @RainmakerCorp has begun the largest cloud seeding campaign in modern U.S. history. The El Segundo based startup is operating across 7,500 square miles of Utah and Idaho in the Bear River Basin. The company aims to revitalize the Great Salt Lake, a critical water source for residents, agriculture, ranching, and the region’s broader economy. - J.P. Morgan plans to deploy $1.5 trillion in financing for U.S. critical industries, including defense, energy, and advanced manufacturing, with $10 billion in direct investments. - @neros_tech, the El Segundo–based drone company, has raised a $75 million Series B. The startup aims to mass-produce FPVs to advance critical American drone production and also manufacture ground control systems. Neros Technologies is seeking to drive an asymmetric advantage for the West by producing low-cost drones at scale, critical for national security. The round was led by @sequoia, with participation from Vy Capital and Interlagos. -@Saronic Technologies, the autonomous-ship startup, has secured a "$392M production contract with the U.S. Navy." - @OpenAI has announced the StarGate Project, which will deploy $500B to develop American AI infrastructure. SoftBank will have financial responsibility, while OpenAI will have operational responsibility. The first project is slated in Texas. - @nvidia is reportedly acquiring @GroqInc, the LPU chipmaker, for about $20 billion. - @FirehawkAero has successfully flight-tested a 3D-printed hybrid rocket engine under its Army Applications Laboratory contract. The system reached over 18,000 feet and broke the sound barrier, showcasing the potential of additive manufacturing for rapid, affordable defense propulsion. - @armada_ai has raised $131M and launched Leviathan, a megawatt-scale modular data center built to deliver faster, cheaper, and more flexible distributed computing. - @UNION_Prime has announced a $50 million seed round financing. The Dallas, Texas startup is developing a new-age American energetics company. The round was led by @bvvc_1776,with Regulus co-leading and serving as their first customer. UNION is launching a Factories-as-a-Stockpile model and has made major progress, including developing various new technologies, advancing factory development, forming partnerships with NATO allies, and more. - @Firestorm_Labs has announced a $47 million Series A funding round. The San Diego startup will use the funding to scale point-of-need production with their "xCell, an expeditionary factory-in-a-box that produces modular airframes, mission-specific payloads, and replacement components at the point of need." The round was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA). - @seasats has secured an $89 million IDIQ contract through the Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic. The contract will advance the United States Marine Corps unmanned surface vessel (USV) capabilities. Based in the heart of San Diego, Seasats develops USV technology for maritime defense applications such as ISR. - @regentcraft has launched REGENT Defense. -@VulcanElements has announced a $900M investment to develop a rare earth magnet facility that will become the largest outside of China. The facility will create 1,000 new jobs in the state and will be critical for American rare earth security. - @foundersfund has launched General Matter, the company is focused on "enriching uranium in America". The current team comes from a diverse government & commercial backgrounds, previously working at places such as Los Alamos National Lab, Anduril, Tesla, SOCOM, SpaceX & more. - Substrate, a semiconductor startup, has raised $100M to build a novel lithography platform for next-generation chip manufacturing. - @VardaSpace W-2 capsule safely landed back on Earth at the Koonibba Test Range in Australia after six weeks in orbit. The capsule carried a spectrometer developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory and utilized a heatshield developed in collaboration with NASA's Ames Research Center. Additionally, Varda advanced research to expand its pharmaceutical processing capacity and capability. - @anduriltech has raised $2.5B, bringing its valuation to $30.5B. The round was led by Founders Fund. - @fieldai_ has raised $405M, the Irvine, California startup develops robotics intelligence technology, investors include NVIDIA CVC & Jeff Bezos' family office. -@RocketLab secured an $816M prime contract from the U.S. Space Development Agency and will deliver satellites for missile detection. - @8vc has raised $998M for its Fund VI. 8VC will continue to invest across hard tech domains such as defense and life sciences. - @poseidonaero has raised an $11 million seed round led by Tamarack Global. The Bay Area startup is developing autonomous cargo planes and currently operates two platforms: Egret, a fixed-wing aircraft with short takeoff and landing capabilities for regional air cargo, and Heron, a runway-independent seaplane designed for maritime and inter-island logistics. - @nvidia has announced plans to produce their supercomputers entirely in the U.S., they are currently developing manufacturing facilities in Houston & Dallas, Texas - A large-scale transformer production facility will be built in Virginia. Hitachi Energy is investing $1B to bring the facility online, among other U.S. expansion needs. Production should begin in 2028. - @BlueWaterShips has announced a $50M Series A led by @GVteam. The Boston-based startup develops long-range autonomous ships for maritime defense. Additional investors include Eclipse, Riot, and Impatient Ventures. The startup plans to manufacture and deploy its first ship next year, with successful testing already underway. - @aureliuslasers has raised a $10M seed round. The SF startup develops directed energy C-UAS technology. Their Archimedes platform detects, tracks, and destroys enemy drones and operates on the edge, while being highly modular and compact. The round was led by General Catalyst and Draper Associates. Additional investors include Outlander VC, Squadra Ventures, Decisive Point, Alumni Ventures, New Founding ,GoAhead Ventures, Detroit Venture Partners, EOTECH, and Mana Ventures. - @castelion has announced Project Ranger, which will be a “1000-acre solid rocket motor manufacturing campus dedicated to next-generation hypersonic systems” located in New Mexico. The project will bring $650 million in economic output for the state over the next 10 years. - @anduriltech has secured a $1.2B contract with the Royal Australian Navy to deliver a fleet of Ghost Shark XL-AUVs

We produced nearly 100 episodes of @schoolofwarpod in 2025. It was quite a year: authors like Stephen Kotkin (Ep. 180), Andrew Roberts (Ep. 189), @DouglasKMurray (Ep. 193), Walter Russell Mead (Ep. 186), and @barrystrauss (Ep. 224). Public figures like @TomCottonAR (Ep. 183); industry leaders like @anduriltech's @cdbrose (Ep. 259), @UNION_Prime's Will Sommerindyke (Ep. 216), serial CEO @DrJohnHillen (Ep. 195), and @WeAreHII's Eric Chewning (Ep. 172). Episodes covered everything from breaking news (e.g. Operation Midnight Hammer) to civilizational collapse in the Bronze Age to the nature of historical thinking itself. We hit 3 million total downloads. And this fall we finally switched to video (which takes a toll on my ability to multitask while recording!) It's hard to pick favorites, but here are my top 20 episodes from 2025, recommended for your holiday down-time:

Are we crazy to build in public? Excerpt from my last therapy session... Therapist - "So Russell, is this "Build in Public" in the room with us right now?" Russell - " Uhhh, Yeah it's standing right behind you." Therapist -> Turning slowly to the right " OH SH&T!"

A little Saturday Heli-Lift work to drop HVAC equipment on the roof of our factory.

@UNION_Prime This is what “building” actually looks like. #TheManufacturingPrime #FactoriesAsAStockpile #MutuallyAssuredProduction #ForTheWest

The future belongs to the makers. 🇺🇸🚀 @UNION_Prime

Factories-as-a-Stockpile is the new doctrine for national security manufacturing. Be prepared to be amazed by @UNION_Prime. This company builds what others say can't be done.

Daily Hard Tech Headlines: - Sky Spy has raised a $1.61M pre-seed round led by Expeditions and Superangel. The dual-use startup develops portable signal-intelligence systems for real-time detection, classification, and geolocation of RF threats in contested environments. - @AdaptivDefense has launched. The startup develops new-age gear and training for law enforcement, defense, and other end users. - @UNION_Prime, the Texas-based energetics company, has forged its first parts, shared by Jonathan Reiland, co-founder and head of manufacturing. - @shift5co has secured a contract to build out upgrades for the Air Force’s F-16 fleet. - @OndasHoldings has secured a new deal focused on enhancing border security by utilizing autonomous UAS, ground launch systems, AI, and command-and-control capabilities to enable continuous ISR and rapid response. The multi-year, multi-phase program comes from a major government customer. - Istari Digital, the startup developing software for the physical world, has designed a moon vacuum for Blue Origin using its AI platform. - A new police unit has launched focused on C-UAS detection and response, created under the German Federal Police. - @VardaSpace Industries W-5 spacecraft has successfully reached orbit after launching on a SpaceX mission. - @ElectraAero has launched Electra Defense, featuring its hybrid-electric ultra-STOL aircraft focused on contested logistics, ISR, and more. - Washington Harbour Partners LP has made a strategic growth investment in Trusted Space, LLC. - Axle Point Capital, the Newport Beach private equity firm, co-sponsored a strategic investment in Odyssey Space Research, LLC, a flight-software company, with the deal funded by the ONE Bow River National Defense Fund. - @PerseusDefense (YC S25), the C-UAS startup, has selected Buda, Texas as its engineering and manufacturing headquarters, bringing hundreds of new jobs to the region with support from the Buda Economic Development Corporation. - Integer Technologies has secured an MOU with the University of Wisconsin-Madison focused on advancing research in autonomous systems and cybersecurity for defense. - UNITAS, the world’s longest-running multinational maritime exercise with the U.S. Navy and allied partners, showcased @armada_ai Galleon powering Microsoft Flankspeed Edge and Minotaur workloads, pulling in multi-INT data from robotic and autonomous systems. The system was later redeployed aboard a Navy ship, proving it can run advanced compute under tight power limits, while Atlas delivered real-time distributed network awareness across the exercise.

When the cover art exactly = in-game graphics. @UNION_Prime - Say what you'll do and do what you say.

Testing a small induction heater. Small unit allows for fast DOE execution. Billet surface temp is up around 2,000’F in this segment.

We’re hiring a Senior Front-End Engineer at UNION. If you love HTMX, clean UI, and shipping real product that powers factories across America, you’ll fit right in. jobs.ashbyhq.com/union-tech/…

Shaping metal with fire and force. This is how @UNION_Prime is reindustrializing.