Rob Slaughter: From Airman to the Next Defense Tech Unicorn

In early 2026, Rob Slaughter led Defense Unicorns — the company he founded to transform software delivery for the U.S. military — to become the newest defense tech unicorn on the block, receiving a $1 billion valuation after its Series B round of fundraising and touting a 300% increase in adoption year-over-year in military systems. Slaughter joined CTRL + ALT + DEFENSE to share the news, discuss how Defense Unicorns is tackling software modernization for the Defense Department, recount his path from DOD’s software factories to startup founder and make the case for why software is the department’s newest weapon system.