Nov 2024 in brief.
Eight events, ≥$5.55B disclosed on every one. AeroVironment’s $4.1B all-stock agreement for BlueHalo — counter-UAS, directed energy, space and cyber under Arlington Capital ownership — was the largest transaction in the archive until Motorola’s Silvus purchase six months later, and Teledyne’s $710M carve-out of Excelitas’ aerospace and defense electronics (Qioptiq optics plus safe-arm and energetics devices) made it two strategic deals for the price of a normal month. Financing was mid-to-late stage and evenly sized: Firefly Aerospace’s $175M Series D ahead of its 2025 IPO, Skydio’s $170M Series E extension (KDDI, Axon), The Exploration Company’s $160M Series B for reusable cargo spacecraft (Balderton, Plural), CHAOS Industries’ $145M Series B for distributed radar (Accel), and Tekever’s $74M Series B (Baillie Gifford, NATO Innovation Fund). Vatn Systems’ $13M seed for autonomous underwater vehicles rounded out the month.
Two things to carry forward. First, the counter-UAS and missile-defense franchise commanded the month’s premium — BlueHalo’s price is the reference point for the C-UAS rounds that followed (Hidden Level and Epirus in early 2025, CHAOS again in May and November). Second, three of the five large rounds went to companies that return to the tape at higher marks (Firefly, CHAOS, Skydio); November is where their diligence trail starts.
Activity vs each domain’s own baseline.
Each cell is the number of publicly announced deals in that domain and month. Color compares the month with that domain’s own average over the months shown — not a scale shared across domains — so a dark cell in a small domain means “busy for that domain”, not “large in dollars”. Domains with fewer than 12 events in the window are shown in gray without color. Absolute totals across all 24 months are on the archive home.
| Domain | Sep 24 | Oct 24 | Nov 24 | Deals since Sep 24 | Disclosed $ (same window) | Last 3 mo vs prior 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Missiles, Munitions & Missile Defense | – | 1 | 1 | 2 | ≥$4.1B | — |
| Autonomous Systems & Robotics | 5 | 1 | 3 | 9 | ≥$433.4M | — |
| Space & Launch | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | ≥$490M | — |
| C4ISR, EW & Sensing | 3 | 1 | 2 | 6 | ≥$2.14B | — |
| Cyber & Intelligence | 1 | 1 | – | 2 | ≥$55M | — |
| AI, Compute & Defense Software | 2 | – | – | 2 | ≥$70M | — |
| Platforms: Air, Land & Maritime | – | – | – | 0 | — | — |
| Defense Manufacturing & Industrial Base | – | 1 | – | 1 | ≥$12M | — |
| Logistics, Sustainment & Training | – | 1 | – | 1 | ≥$30M | — |
| Acquisition, Budget & National Security Policy | – | – | – | 0 | — | — |
| Other / critical technologies | – | 1 | – | 1 | ≥$59M | — |
The archive begins in Sep 2024, so this issue shows 3 of the usual 12 baseline months; averages use the months shown.
Top deals.
| Date | Company | Event | Amount | Investors / Acquirer | Domain | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-11-19 | BlueHalo | M-STRATEGIC | $4.1B | AeroVironment | Missiles, Munitions & Missile Defense | Source |
| 2024-11-06 | Excelitas Aerospace & Defense Electronics businesses (Qioptiq OS / AES) | M-CARVEOUT | $710M | Teledyne Technologies | C4ISR, EW & Sensing | Source |
| 2024-11-12 | Firefly Aerospace | F-D | $175M | RPM Ventures | Space & Launch | Source |
| 2024-11-15 | Skydio | F-EXT | $170M | KDDI; Axon | Autonomous Systems & Robotics | Source |
| 2024-11-18 | The Exploration Company | F-B | $160M | Balderton Capital; Plural | Space & Launch | Source |
| 2024-11-13 | CHAOS Industries | F-B | $145M | Accel | C4ISR, EW & Sensing | Source |
| 2024-11-20 | Tekever | F-B | $74M | Baillie Gifford; NATO Innovation Fund | Autonomous Systems & Robotics | Source |
| 2024-11-12 | Vatn Systems | F-SEED | $13M | DYNE Ventures | Autonomous Systems & Robotics | Source |
No domain moved outside its normal range.
No domain yet has enough history for a percentage callout. We flag a domain only when its last three months differ from the prior three by 30% or more and it has at least 36 events in the trailing 12 months. Smaller samples stay as raw counts on the heat map; we never quote month-over-month percentages.
Fund closes, programs and other items.
Fund closes, government capital programs and other supply-side items sit here, outside the deal statistics.
Capital supply & policy
- 2024-11-04 Faber Tech III C-FUNDCLOSE
€31M initial close toward a €60M target, anchored by the EIF with the NATO Innovation Fund and Caixa Capital participating. Deep-tech mandate for Southern Europe with a dual-use resilience focus. · Source - 2024-11-27 BSV Ventures C-FUNDCLOSE
€15M Baltic deep-tech and dual-use fund; the NATO Innovation Fund’s first Baltic fund investment, alongside ILTE and private LPs. · Source
Reported, not confirmed
None this issue. Items appear here only when a credible report has not yet been confirmed by a primary source; they never enter the statistics.
Nov activity by domain.
A full section (narrative and table) for any domain with five or more events this month; a compact list otherwise. Each event has one primary domain: the market the money is buying.
Missiles, Munitions & Missile Defense
1 event · disclosed floor ≥$4.1B (1 disclosed of 1)
- 2024-11-19 BlueHalo · M-STRATEGIC · $4.1B · AeroVironment · Source
Autonomous Systems & Robotics
3 events · disclosed floor ≥$257M (3 disclosed of 3)
Space & Launch
2 events · disclosed floor ≥$335M (2 disclosed of 2)
C4ISR, EW & Sensing
2 events · disclosed floor ≥$855M (2 disclosed of 2)
Cyber & Intelligence
No events in the issue month.
AI, Compute & Defense Software
No events in the issue month.
Platforms: Air, Land & Maritime
No events in the issue month.
Defense Manufacturing & Industrial Base
No events in the issue month.
Logistics, Sustainment & Training
No events in the issue month.
Acquisition, Budget & National Security Policy
No events in the issue month.
Deal table, method and definitions.
Issue deal table
| ID | Date | Status | Company | Type | Amount | Domain | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PULSE-202411-0021 | 2024-11-20 | closed | Tekever | F-B | $74M | Autonomous Systems & Robotics | Source |
| PULSE-202411-0020 | 2024-11-19 | closed | BlueHalo | M-STRATEGIC | $4.1B | Missiles, Munitions & Missile Defense | Source |
| PULSE-202411-0024 | 2024-11-18 | closed | The Exploration Company | F-B | $160M | Space & Launch | Source |
| PULSE-202411-0023 | 2024-11-15 | closed | Skydio | F-EXT | $170M | Autonomous Systems & Robotics | Source |
| PULSE-202411-0019 | 2024-11-13 | closed | CHAOS Industries | F-B | $145M | C4ISR, EW & Sensing | Source |
| PULSE-202411-0022 | 2024-11-12 | closed | Firefly Aerospace | F-D | $175M | Space & Launch | Source |
| PULSE-202411-0018 | 2024-11-12 | closed | Vatn Systems | F-SEED | $13M | Autonomous Systems & Robotics | Source |
| PULSE-202411-0017 | 2024-11-06 | closed | Excelitas Aerospace & Defense Electronics businesses (Qioptiq OS / AES) | M-CARVEOUT | $710M | C4ISR, EW & Sensing | Source |
Method & coverage
Public sources only · Issue window = first public announcement in Nov 2024 · 8 announced or closed events (F 6 · M 2 · P 0) · Disclosed floor ≥$5.55B across 8 of 8 (0% undisclosed) · Closings of deals first announced in an earlier month are not counted again here · Capital-supply items are sidebar-only and excluded from domain statistics · Heat-map colors use each domain’s own trailing-12-month baseline.
Event codes & terms
Disclosed floor — the sum of publicly disclosed amounts only. Undisclosed deals add zero, so read every total as “at least”.
Announcement month — events are dated to their first public announcement. A close in a later month does not move the event.
Mission domain — the market the capital is buying: the investor’s thesis first, the product second. One primary domain per event.
Heat-map baseline — color compares a month’s count with the same domain’s average over the trailing 12 months shown. Grey means fewer than 12 events in the window, too few to color.
About ASC
Abelian Security Council (ASC) gives clients in defense, national security and critical technologies direct, compliant access to the people who researched, designed, built, evaluated, bought, deployed and competed with the systems they are underwriting. Pulse is the public layer of that work: a curated tape of announced financings, acquisitions and listings, compiled from public sources and published monthly. Clients can schedule a call with Owen Davies, ASC’s Chief Executive. Members can apply to join.