Feb 2026 Pulse

Feb 2026 in brief.

February was busy and modestly sized: 18 events, ≥$1.64B across 15 disclosed, nothing above $350M. Space & Launch had five events and the top three amounts — Stoke Space’s $350M Series D extension (its third raise on the tape), Axiom Space’s $350M growth package of equity and debt (Type One, Qatar Investment Authority), and CesiumAstro’s $270M Series C for software-defined communications payloads. Machina Labs’ $124M Series C (Woven, Lockheed Martin Ventures) for robotic metal forming and Overland AI’s $100M Series B with venture debt were the industrial and ground-autonomy checks; Aalyria raised $100M for network orchestration and laser communications. XTEND, the Israeli tactical-drone software company, announced a $152M business combination with JFB Construction Holdings. The Series A layer was European air defense — Frankenburg Technologies (Estonia) and TYTAN Technologies (Munich, NATO Innovation Fund) each raised $33M on February 24 — plus Chariot Defense’s $34M for battlefield power, Natilus’ $28M for blended-wing cargo aircraft and NODA AI’s $25M for mixed-fleet orchestration. Three acquisitions were undisclosed: Ventus Industrial’s formation of a munitions-machining platform from General Tool Company and Magna Machine, Valiant Solutions’ Abile Group, and Cerberus’ Vivace International.

The count says the market is healthy; the floor says it is early. Eight of the eighteen events were seed or Series A, and three of the four largest were an extension, a debt-inclusive package or a SPAC rather than fresh priced equity. The European interceptor rounds are the more interesting signal: Frankenburg and TYTAN are the first European counter-missile and counter-drone startups on the tape at Series A, and both are pricing mass-producible interceptors — the same thesis Cambridge Aerospace raises on at $200M and $300M later in the year.

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.

Top deals.

Notable undisclosed

• Vivace International · M-PE-PLATFORM · 2026-02-18 · Cerberus Capital Management · SourceMission-critical propulsion tanks and aerospace systems manufacturer based at NASA Michoud; serves spaceflight, hypersonics, and defense programs.
• Abile Group · M-STRATEGIC · 2026-02-17 · Valiant Solutions · SourceSecure network and cyber engineering services for national security customers.
• General Tool Company / Magna Machine · M-PE-PLATFORM · 2026-02-04 · Ventus Industrial Partners (Aeron Defense) with GenNx360 and Admiralty Partners · SourceMission-critical machining suppliers supporting Patriot/LTAMDS and munitions programs.

Movers.

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.

• Autonomous Systems & Robotics: 6 events in the last three months vs 11 in the prior three (−45%); 3 events this month against a 12-month average of 3.0.
• Space & Launch: 12 events in the last three months vs 6 in the prior three (+100%); 5 events this month against a 12-month average of 3.0.

Fund closes, programs and other items.

Fund closes, government capital programs and other supply-side items sit here, outside the deal statistics.

Feb 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.

Deal table, method and definitions.

Issue deal table

Method & coverage

Public sources only · Issue window = first public announcement in Feb 2026 · 18 announced or closed events (F 14 · M 3 · P 1) · Disclosed floor ≥$1.64B across 15 of 18 (17% 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

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.