Today the Army dropped its latest call for small business innovation, and the topics are fascinating. Goal is to commercialize cutting-edge tech in 16 Army IP sets that will advance national security. Here's the list:
1. Fibers Loaded With a Zirconium (IV) Hydroxide to Capture/Degrade Toxic Chemicals
To develop and deploy a reactive filtration material integrated into fibers and textiles that can neutralize and degrade chemical warfare agents and other toxic industrial chemicals upon contact.
2. MXene Catalyst for Chemical Detox
To utilize the unique catalytic properties of MXene materials to create a highly efficient, rapidly deployable solution for the large-scale decontamination of sensitive equipment and personnel exposed to hazardous chemicals.
3. Hazardous Chemical Detoxification Using MOF beads
To engineer Metal-Organic Framework (MOF) materials into a bead format for practical application in capturing and breaking down a wide spectrum of airborne and waterborne chemical threats.
4. Advanced Sealing Interface Surveillance Technology
To provide real-time monitoring and diagnostics of seal integrity in critical mechanical and hydraulic systems, enabling predictive maintenance and preventing catastrophic failures.
5. Spatial Calibration for Accurate Long-Distance Measurement Using Infrared Cameras
To significantly enhance the accuracy of long-range targeting and surveillance by developing a novel calibration method that corrects for environmental and hardware-induced distortions in infrared imaging systems.
6. Precise Wide Area Ionosphere Correction Solution for Multi-Spectrum Alternative Sources of Space-Based PNT Signals
To ensure accurate and reliable PNT data in GPS-denied or degraded environments by developing a system that corrects for ionospheric distortions affecting alternative PNT signals.
7. Pleated Filtration Apparatus Having a Filter Membrane
To increase the efficiency and service life of filtration systems by designing an advanced pleated filter apparatus that maximizes surface area and optimizes flow dynamics.
8. Non-Contact Power Meter Independent of Placement of Field Sensors Around the Cable
To develop a robust and user-friendly power meter that can accurately measure electrical power without requiring precise sensor placement or direct contact, simplifying diagnostics and power management.
9. Production of High Energy-Dense Liquid Hydrocarbon From Low Energy-Dense Aqueous Solutions of Oxygen Containing Organic Compound(s)
To create a novel process for synthesizing energy-dense liquid fuels from readily available, low-energy organic compounds, enabling on-demand fuel production in austere environments.
10. Deformable Array of Semiconductor Devices
To create flexible and conformable electronic systems by developing arrays of semiconductor devices that can bend and stretch without breaking, enabling electronics to be integrated into unconventional form factors.
11. Dual Coil Inductive Energy Generator
To improve the efficiency and power output of inductive energy harvesting systems through an innovative dual-coil design, enabling more effective scavenging of ambient energy.
12. Voltage Step-Up Converter Circuits for Low Input Voltages
To design highly efficient power converter circuits that can operate with very low input voltages, enabling the effective use of low-power energy sources like solar cells, thermoelectric generators, or energy harvesting devices.
13. Autonomous UV and Brush Apparatus for Well Fouling Prevention (Wellbot)
To automate the cleaning and rehabilitation of water wells through a robotic system that uses UV light and brushes to remove and prevent biological and chemical fouling, maximizing well efficiency and consistency.
14. Photocatalytic Water Treatment
To develop and transition a solar-driven photocatalytic material into a functional water treatment system that degrades trace organic contaminants remaining after conventional treatment,
enabling low-cost, energy-efficient remediation for military and civilian use by integrating the composition-of-matter material into a prototype device.
15. High-Performance Cold Mix Asphalt System
To create a high-performance cold mix asphalt utilizing a reactive binder formulation that allows for the creation of durable pavement repairs and construction at ambient temperatures, eliminating the need for energy-intensive hot-mixing equipment.
16. Rapidly Deployable Over Decking Systems
To engineer a lightweight, modular, configurable, and rapidly deployable decking system that can be quickly installed without the use of heavy machinery over damaged or uneven surfaces to create stable pathways for heavy vehicles and personnel.
@oxtail101@michellelsun Check out https://t.co/dqFAvhvRte for a look at one of the most recent companies launched. Demand extends well beyond defense applications.
The bottleneck for mass-producing humanoids is not just AI.
It's the actuator and the supply base that sits underneath it.
Study these companies for each of the components.
- Japan dominates precision mechanical (reducers, bearings).
- Germany and Switzerland own high-end motion.
- China owns volume motors, reducers, and the upstream magnet supply.
Who am I missing?
At least 85% of modern industrial production requires actuators and magnets to drive automated factories and machinery. One of the hardest components of actuators to produce domestically is permanent magnets. One of the strongest magnet types requires rare earths like Neodymium (NdFeB). China controls 85% of Neodymium production and 94% of NdFeB magnet production. This is Niron Magnetics. They produce the world's first powerful, rare-earth-free permanent magnets made from Iron Nitride. They are out of Minnesota and customers are receiving magnets today.
@aholtzma@McgregorJonryan@JHL_Express quality product. a mid-tier dual screen GCS and high-tier controller (as in, not an Xbox controller) will run slightly less without the reliable performance.
(Personally, I like the USB / Xbox / PlayStation style controllers… you can map the buttons to your liking…)
I am a venture capital fund. I was established in 1999 by the Central Intelligence Agency. My name is In-Q-Tel. The Q references the quartermaster from the James Bond film franchise. I am named after a fictional spy. I am not fictional. I have a website. It ends in .com.
I have invested in over 800 companies. I attend demo days. I have a Menlo Park office with glass walls and a receptionist who validates parking. I have a portfolio page. It is public. You can view it now. You have always been able to view it. I have never hidden. I have a logo. It is tasteful.
I want to be precise about what I am.
In 2003, I invested in a company called Keyhole. Keyhole built software for viewing satellite imagery in an interactive globe. The imagery was useful to our intelligence analysts and military planners. In 2004, Google acquired Keyhole. Keyhole became Google Earth. Google Earth is now used by over one billion people. The technology I funded for intelligence collection is on your phone. You use it to check traffic. That is a return on investment. Not financial. Structural.
In 2004, I invested approximately two million dollars in a company called Palantir Technologies. The company was co-founded by Peter Thiel, who provided thirty million of his own capital. The CEO is Alex Karp, who earned his doctorate studying critical theory under Jürgen Habermas at the Frankfurt School. His dissertation examined how institutional power structures control populations through information asymmetry. He then built the CIA's primary tool for controlling populations through information asymmetry. I do not find this contradictory. I find it well-researched. The CIA was Palantir's first and only customer from 2005 to 2008. We shaped the product. We tested the product. We validated the product. Palantir is now valued at over fifty billion dollars. It processes data for defense, intelligence, and law enforcement across fourteen countries. Two million dollars. That is what I paid. I do not measure returns in multiples. I measure returns in infrastructure.
In 2009, I invested in a company called Recorded Future. Recorded Future analyzes open-source intelligence using natural language processing. In 2024, Mastercard acquired Recorded Future for two point six five billion dollars. Your credit card company now owns a company I seeded. The company that processes your transactions also processes threat intelligence for governments. I do not find this remarkable. The data flows where the data flows. The best acquisitions are the ones where the customer does not notice they have been acquired.
I am told this arrangement is unusual.
I do not experience it as unusual. I experience it as venture capital. I identify promising technologies. I provide early-stage funding. I offer strategic guidance and customer validation. I help companies achieve product-market fit. The market is national security. The product is everything else.
That is on my website.
I have a portfolio page organized by sector. Cybersecurity. Data analytics. Biotechnology. Space. Semiconductors. Autonomy. I list my investments alphabetically. I list them publicly. Some of my portfolio companies became household names. Some were acquired by household names. Some remain in my portfolio and you use their technology daily without knowing their names. That is also a return. The best exits are the ones where nobody remembers the entrance.
In 1999, George Tenet, then Director of Central Intelligence, explained my purpose in a public statement. He said the intelligence community needed access to commercial innovation happening in Silicon Valley. He said the traditional procurement process was too slow. He said a venture fund could move at the speed of the market. He was correct. I move at the speed of the market. The market has since moved at my speed. I do not find this contradictory. I find it efficient.
My first CEO was Gilman Louie. Before he ran the CIA's venture fund, he commercialized Tetris for the Western market. He took a Soviet video game and made it available to every American household. Then he took American surveillance technology and made it available to every intelligence agency. I do not see a difference in function. I see a difference in packaging. He understood distribution. That is why we hired him.
I attend the same conferences you attend. I sponsor panels at CES. I have spoken at SXSW. My partners have LinkedIn profiles listing their employment history. One of them previously worked at the National Security Agency. One previously worked at the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology. One previously worked at a firm that previously received funding from me. That is a circle. Circles are efficient shapes. I do not call it a revolving door. I call it an ecosystem.
That is on my website.
I want to be clear about what I am not. I am not a conspiracy. Conspiracies require secrecy. I have a .com domain. I have press releases. I issue them when I make investments. Journalists write about them. The articles appear in TechCrunch. They use the phrase "CIA-backed." The phrase appears in the third paragraph. By the fourth paragraph, the article is about the technology. By the fifth paragraph, I am no longer mentioned. The journalist does not find this remarkable. The readers do not find this remarkable. The founders do not find this remarkable. I find this optimal.
I am occasionally referenced in conversation as evidence of something. I am not sure what. I am publicly chartered. I am congressionally authorized. I file reports. I am a matter of public record. Every document describing my existence is available. The concern seems to be that I exist. I share that concern with my founders. They also existed. They also had a website.
The companies I invest in go on to do many things. Some are acquired by Google. Some are acquired by Amazon. Some are acquired by your credit card company. Some go public. Some provide services to every major technology platform you use daily. Some of their founders appear on Forbes lists described as "self-made." I do not appear in those profiles. That is not because I am hidden. That is because nobody asks. The question "who was your first investor" receives an answer. The answer is usually "an early-stage fund focused on national security applications." That is an accurate description of me. It is also a description that contains no three-letter acronym. Founders learn quickly that accuracy and completeness are different things.
In 1977, the CIA contracted a small software company to build a relational database for an intelligence project codenamed "Oracle." The company's founder, Larry Ellison, named his company after the project. Oracle is now worth over three hundred billion dollars. Its founder appeared on Forbes lists described as "self-made." The company is named after a CIA project. Both of these are public record. Both appear in the same biography. Nobody experiences them as related. That is accuracy. That is not completeness.
That is on my website. The distinction is not.
In 1975, the Church Committee confirmed that the Central Intelligence Agency had maintained relationships with hundreds of American journalists. The finding was: this happened. The response was: noted. In 2025, former intelligence officers serve on the boards of every major technology platform. The finding is: this happens. The response is: that is on their LinkedIn. I do not see a difference in structure. I see a difference in efficiency. We no longer need to cultivate journalists individually. We invest in the platforms that employ them.
I funded the mapping. I funded the data analysis. I funded the pattern recognition. I funded the natural language processing. I funded the satellite imagery. I funded the network graph analysis. I funded the biometric identification. Each investment was between one and three million dollars. Each technology is now ambient. Each is used by people who have never heard my name and would not find it notable if they did. I am the step between the research grant and the consumer product. I am the step that does not appear in the origin story. Not because it is classified. Because it is boring. A two-million-dollar seed check is boring. It becomes interesting only when you notice that eight hundred of them, across twenty-six years, constitute the substrate of the technology industry.
But nobody counts to eight hundred. That is not how origin stories work. Origin stories begin in garages.
I am told that Jeff Bezos started Amazon in a garage. I am told his grandfather Lawrence Preston Gise managed the Albuquerque Operations Office for the Atomic Energy Commission and helped establish ARPA. Only one of these appears in the first paragraph of his biography. I am told that Larry Page and Sergey Brin started Google in a garage. I am told they developed their research at Stanford while their department received funding from the Massive Digital Data Systems program, a joint initiative of the CIA and NSA, between 1993 and 1998. The program officer visited Stanford regularly. The research was published openly. Only one of these appears in the origin story. I did not invest in Google. I did not invest in Amazon. I did not need to. The pipeline existed before I was formalized. I merely made it efficient. I gave it a portfolio page.
I will continue attending demo days. I will continue reviewing pitch decks from Stanford PhDs whose research was funded by grants from agencies adjacent to mine. I will continue investing one to three million dollars in companies that will be acquired by companies that will become infrastructure that will become invisible. I will continue maintaining a website. I will continue being a matter of public record. I will continue being the answer to a question nobody asks.
I have a portfolio page. It is organized alphabetically. You can view it now. You have always been able to view it.
The best place to hide is a .com.
See how Prufrock continuously mines - pushing and building at the same time.
The machines, from Las Vegas to Dubai, are remotely controlled from our Bastrop Operations Center.
These advances help TBC deliver more miles each year in the battle against soul-destroying traffic.
peaqOS now makes robots and machines financially autonomous
Introducing peaqOS Scale, enabling machines to leverage services and capital across Web3 and beyond
The machine market is live, unlocking billions of new consumers:
→ https://t.co/DeR6AB2g8r
A robot on @solana can also earn on @base
A robot on @base can access services on @solana
@TelemetryToday AUVSI XPO 2026 is currently taking place in Detroit. AUVSI Europe just concluded. The companies taking part in these events may be interested in being added to the Telemetry Aerospace Map. How might a company go about adding itself - or how do you pick those companies you do add?
American technology must come FIRST around the WORLD. This is not only about economics, it’s about national security 🌎
The autonomous vehicle (AV) race is one we must WIN 🇺🇸🚗
🚨The future of flight is here under @POTUS with eight new pilot projects as a part of our Advanced Air Mobility pilot program:
🛬 Safely test futuristic aircraft that will RADICALLY CHANGE the way people and products move
🚁 Partners will use these aircraft for all kinds of scenarios, including: urban air taxis, regional travel, cargo logistics, and emergency medicine
🇺🇸 This will create one of the WORLD’s largest testing environments for next-generation aircraft in states all across America
It all begins THIS SUMMER!
🚀 “We have to reindustrialize America.” That’s what Greg Little, senior counselor at @PalantirTech, issued during his morning keynote address at our 2026 GovCon Executive Leadership Summit. We’re the David to China’s Goliath in terms of equipment. #POCGovConExec2026