# Vector

**Type:** venture
**Status:** Draft
**Confidence:** Medium
**Focus:** attritable drones, special operations, fiber-optic FPV, electronic warfare resilience, modern warfare as a service
**Stage:** Series A (~$61M raised in ~14 months; ~150 employees)
**Location:** Bluffdale, UT
**Updated:** 2026-06-19
**Needs-reviewed:** 2026-06-19
**Pull:** *Jamming-immune FPV drones and a subscription model built for SOF — impressive early traction, very young company.*

## Summary

Vector is a Bluffdale, Utah defense company founded in 2024 that equips U.S. and allied special operations forces with attritable drone systems procured, upgraded, and replaced at the speed of modern conflict. Its "Modern Warfare as a Service" model delivers ongoing hardware, tactical integration training, doctrine updates, and refreshes under subscription rather than traditional one-time procurement.

Special Operations Command validated the approach with a multi-year contract (values undisclosed), designating Vector a chosen capability provider. The company raised approximately $61M within roughly fourteen months of founding, reached about 150 employees, earned the Pentagon Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Top Gun Trophy, and received DIU Blue and Green List approval for domestic supply chain and cyber resilience.

## Impact

Traditional defense procurement takes years; drone threat environments change in weeks. Vector's subscription framing tries to align SOF units with continuous capability updates instead of aging one-time purchases. The SOF customer base is strategically valuable because special operations units are early adopters whose feedback shapes doctrine that can scale to conventional forces.

The fiber-optic control link on the Hammer platform is the technical differentiator: in GPS-denied, RF-contested environments, conventional RF-linked drones fail; fiber-optic communication is impervious to electronic-warfare countermeasures that defeat RF links. Legacy assessment (converted to caveat, not tier): serious SOF customer, validated capability signal, and genuine model innovation — but durability and production scaling remain unproven at fourteen months old.

## What They Are Building

Three platforms cover outdoor, urban, and indoor mission profiles:

- **Hammer** (10-inch propeller) — long-range outdoor operations; fiber-optic control link immune to RF jamming and GPS denial; detects targets up to 20 km; dual-use sensing and strike
- **Mace** (5-inch propeller) — compact design for urban and forested environments
- **3.5-inch indoor drone** — building reconnaissance and close-quarters tactical operations

Unlike traditional primes that deliver a platform and walk away, Vector sells ongoing capability: drones, training, doctrine updates, and hardware refreshes under subscription.

## What They Need Now

Likely needs include robotics, aerospace, embedded systems, and electronic-warfare engineers; manufacturing and production scale-up staff; special operations veterans and defense acquisition professionals who can translate SOF requirements into product; and program managers comfortable with fast-paced DoD integration.

For talent matching, Vector fits engineers and operators who want startup pace inside defense — roughly 150 people, Series A capital, and a validated but early SOCOM relationship.

## Who Could Help

Useful helpers include SOCOM and DIU program advisors, ITAR and export-control counsel, manufacturing scale-up operators, and connectors into Utah's drone cluster ([Teal Drones](teal-drones.md), [Fortem Technologies](fortem-technologies.md), [Baxter Aerospace](baxter-aerospace.md)). Fiber-optic tether and EW-resilience expertise is a natural partner category.

## Utah Context

Vector is headquartered in Bluffdale, placing it in the Wasatch Front defense corridor near Hill Air Force Base and Utah's growing attritable-UAS cluster. It is one of the highest-profile recent defense startups in the state, alongside larger players like Anduril (not Utah-based) competing for overlapping DoD budgets.

## Evidence

- [Vector official website](https://www.tfvector.com)
- [Vector SOCOM contract announcement](https://www.tfvector.com/news/vector-lands-major-socom-contract-accelerates-military-drone-innovation)
- [Axios: Vector raises $61M (September 2025)](https://www.axios.com/2025/09/03/vector-defense-drones-utah-investments)
- [Utah Business: Series A closing](https://www.utahbusiness.com/press-releases/2025/09/08/vector-closing-series-a-financing-round-61-million-14-month-push/)

## Open Questions

- Are SOCOM contract values and scope programmatic wins or pilot-scale engagements?
- Can the subscription "Modern Warfare as a Service" model survive DoD contracting and budget-cycle friction across administrations?
- Production scaling, unit reliability, and fielded numbers are unverified publicly at this stage.
- The attritable-drone market is crowded (Anduril, AeroVironment, Shield AI, L3Harris, and many startups); capture independent technical evaluations before treating fiber-optic FPV as a durable moat.
- No dedicated wiki source records captured yet; press releases and company announcements are leads, not neutral proof.