The Drone Ultimatum

Craig Anders is the Senior Vice President of Growth at AEVEX.

Craig on LinkedIn

AEVEX (NYSE: AVEX)

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Craig Anders, Senior Vice President of Growth at AEVEX Aerospace, joins Steve to discuss the rapidly expanding market for military drones, the challenges of scaling American defense manufacturing, and what the war in Ukraine has taught the United States about modern warfare.

A retired Air Force colonel with 25 years of service, Craig previously served in Big Safari, the Air Force’s rapid acquisition organization. He recounts how a late-night request from the State Department led to a $20 million contract executed in just nine hours, followed by his deployment to train Ukrainian forces on long-range attack drones. That experience helped inform AEVEX’s expansion from a services business into a major manufacturer of unmanned systems.

The conversation explores the economics of drone production, including why government procurement timelines don’t align with manufacturing realities, why the U.S. needs commercial manufacturing expertise, and why scaling production requires sustained demand rather than promises of future orders. Craig also explains AEVEX’s approach to expanding through acquisitions, including its investment in additive manufacturing, autonomy, and maritime systems.

Steve and Craig also discuss the changing nature of naval warfare, the potential for unmanned surface vessels to transform military logistics, and the vulnerability of traditional military platforms to increasingly affordable autonomous weapons. They examine the role of human pilots in future air combat, the development of collaborative combat aircraft, and the growing importance of integrating unmanned systems across different domains.

Finally, Craig shares his perspective on defense acquisition reform, the differences between venture-backed defense startups and established manufacturers, and why the next generation of defense companies must deliver complete operational capabilities rather than simply selling hardware.

Adam Chan is the Senior National Security Counsel at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

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The Federal Communications Commission plays a much larger role in American national security than most people realize.

From regulating the radio spectrum used by drones to restricting foreign-made equipment, the FCC has become an increasingly important player in the U.S. drone industry.

Adam Chan, Senior National Security Counsel at the FCC, joins Steve to discuss how the agency is approaching drone security, counter-UAS regulations, and the effort to strengthen American drone manufacturing.

Working directly with FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, Adam oversees the agency’s national security portfolio and helps coordinate regulatory actions affecting communications technology.

The conversation covers the FCC’s restrictions on foreign-made drones, including DJI, and the reasoning behind limiting new equipment authorizations for certain foreign-produced systems.

Adam explains why he believes these restrictions will create opportunities for American manufacturers and help prevent the United States from becoming dependent on foreign suppliers for critical technologies.

Steve and Adam also discuss the legal restrictions surrounding drone jamming in the United States, how the FCC is expanding opportunities for counter-UAS testing, and the circumstances under which state and local law enforcement agencies can employ electronic countermeasures.

For defense startups, Adam explains the differences between developing drones for military customers and selling systems into commercial or law enforcement markets.

The discussion also explores the FCC’s approach to foreign-made robotics, enforcement actions against companies attempting to circumvent equipment restrictions, and the importance of maintaining bipartisan support for national security regulations.

Adam offers an inside perspective on how a relatively small federal agency is making decisions with significant implications for the future of American defense technology.

Matt Kling is the Vice President and General Manager of AI Systems at MatrixSpace, a company developing compact, low-cost radar systems for counter-drone defense, airspace monitoring, and autonomous operations.

Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewkling/

MatrixSpace: https://www.matrixspace.com/Follow the show!

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In this episode of The Drone Ultimatum, Matt joins Steve to discuss how MatrixSpace is approaching one of the most important challenges in modern air defense: detecting increasingly capable drones without relying on expensive, centralized radar infrastructure.

They explore the company’s origins, its development of a one-pound radar, and its early deployment supporting autonomous police drone operations in Palm Springs, California.

The conversation examines how drone warfare is changing the economics of air defense. As inexpensive drones threaten military installations and high-value equipment, Matt explains why scalable, distributed sensing networks are becoming increasingly important.

They also discuss the growing interceptor market, the challenges of manufacturing defense technology at scale, and MatrixSpace’s work integrating radar with autonomous ground vehicles and counter-UAS systems, including Allen Control Systems’ Bullfrog.

Matt also shares his perspective on AI-powered sensor fusion, processing information at the edge, and the limitations of traditional centralized command-and-control architectures. Drawing on his experience at Raytheon, Northeastern University’s drone research lab, and MatrixSpace, he discusses the transition from large defense programs to a venture-backed technology company.

The episode closes with a broader discussion of the future of drone warfare, GPS-denied threats, mobile military operations, and the challenge of defending increasingly vulnerable forward operating bases.

What happens when a drone needs to navigate underground, inside a building, or in an environment where GPS is unavailable?

Dr. Stefan Hrabar is the Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Emesent, an Australian robotics company developing autonomous navigation and 3D mapping technology. After completing his PhD in robotics at USC, Stefan spent a decade researching drone autonomy at Australia’s CSIRO before co-founding Emesent in 2018.

Stefan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefanhrabar/Emesent: https://www.emesent.com/

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In this episode of The Drone Ultimatum, Stefan joins Steve to discuss how Emesent developed Hovermap, a LiDAR-based system that enables drones and ground robots to navigate and map complex environments without GPS.

Originally developed for underground mining, the technology has expanded into defense applications, including subterranean reconnaissance, building mapping, and battlefield damage assessment.

They also discuss the challenges of building and scaling a hardware company, from raising venture capital and managing manufacturing costs to protecting intellectual property.

Stefan explains why Emesent relies heavily on trade secrets rather than patents, how investor attitudes toward hardware have changed, and what it takes to adapt commercial technology for military customers.

The conversation also covers defense supply chains, NDAA compliance, international distribution, and the growing role of AI in robotics and software development.

From converting gas-powered helicopters into autonomous drones in the early 2000s to building a global robotics company, Stefan shares his experience bringing advanced autonomy research into real-world applications.

Malin Crewse and LeGrand Crewse are brothers and co-founders of Corvus Industries, where LeGrand serves as CEO and Malin as CTO.

Corvus is developing small, low-cost kinetic interceptors designed to counter drones at ranges where electronic warfare and existing missile systems can fall short.

Corvus Industries: https://corvusind.com/

Malin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/malin-crewse-268642ba/

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The conversation covers Corvus’ counter-UAS interceptor, why fiber-optic drones are creating new demand for kinetic defenses, the importance of affordable mass, America’s interceptor stockpile problem, missile manufacturing, seeker technology, solid rocket motors, and the challenge of building systems capable of defeating maneuvering targets.

They also discuss what it’s like building a company as brothers, splitting founder equity 50/50, cashing out retirement savings to fund the company, learning how government procurement actually works, and why successful defense companies may eventually be pushed toward becoming multi-product businesses.

Derek McBride, Portfolio Manager in the Autonomous Warfare portfolio at the Department of War Innovation Unit (DIU), joins the show to discuss how the Pentagon is approaching drones, autonomy, and the defense industrial base.

Derek on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/derekmcbride/

DIU Website: https://www.diu.mil/

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They break down DIU’s role in defense acquisition, the $1.1 billion Drone Dominance program, and how challenge-based acquisition is being used to identify systems that work—and can actually be manufactured at scale.

The conversation covers FPV training, resilient drone supply chains, U.S. manufacturing, counter-UAS systems, interceptors, electronic warfare, autonomy, swarms, private capital in defense, and the economics of modern drone warfare.

Josh Giegel is the Founder and CEO of Gambit AI, an autonomous systems software company building technology to coordinate teams of robots.

Before founding Gambit, Josh worked at SpaceX on the Merlin 1D engine and co-founded Hyperloop Technologies, later Virgin Hyperloop.

Ben Richardson, Gambit’s Chief Commercial Officer, brings a military and defense innovation background to the company.

Josh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-giegel/

Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-richardson-92029b5/

Gambit: https://www.gambit.us/

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In this episode of The Drone Ultimatum, Josh and Ben explain why the growing number of autonomous platforms creates a new problem: coordinating them. Rather than building another drone, Gambit is developing the orchestration layer that allows different autonomous systems, payloads, and platforms to work together toward a common objective.

The conversation covers one-to-many control, AI-enabled electronic warfare, autonomous kill-chain workflows, ISR optimization, drone motherships, and the integration of aerial, ground, and maritime autonomous systems.

Josh and Ben also discuss why future battlefields could increasingly become “robot engagement zones” where autonomous systems operate in areas too dangerous for humans.

They also get into the business of building a defense startup: selling pure software to the government, working with traditional primes instead of treating them as competitors, surviving long procurement cycles, managing burn, and turning demonstrations into actual contracts.

Josh also reflects on his path from SpaceX to Virgin Hyperloop to Gambit, what he learned scaling a company to hundreds of employees, and why building a software-focused defense company is a very different proposition from developing capital-intensive hardware.

Brian Taylor is the Founder & CEO of Lux Aeterna, a startup developing the world's first fully reusable satellite for high-tempo, reliable, and flexible timelines in orbit.

Brian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianjtaylor/

Lux Aeterna: https://www.luxaeterna.com/

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Our website: https://www.thedroneultimatum.com/Brian joins Steve to discuss why falling launch costs are changing the economics of space and why he believes the next step is moving beyond satellites designed around attrition. He explains Lux Aeterna’s approach to operating fleets of reusable spacecraft and how bringing vehicles back creates new possibilities for rapid iteration, payload delivery, hypersonics, and in-space manufacturing.

They also discuss the role SpaceX played in reshaping the space industry, why Brian believes dual-use space companies should often start with defense customers, and how government R&D funding can help early-stage hardware companies establish flight heritage before expanding commercially.

The conversation moves into Brian’s experience as a solo founder, including how he structures his leadership team, hires experienced aerospace engineers, and thinks about fundraising. Brian also explains why raising money is not the same as winning and why founders should focus on investors who genuinely align with their worldview rather than trying to convince everyone.

They close with lessons from hardware development, live demos, failure investigations, and why Lux Aeterna actively looks for engineers who have already experienced the full lifecycle of putting hardware and software into space.

Read the Global Drone Threat Report (2026): https://dronesec.com/resources/d479e340-f78f-11f0-ab58-9f

Listen to our first podcast with Mike: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2utl1hG9Fc

Mike Monnik, founder and CEO of DroneSec, joins The Drone Ultimatum to explain what his team is seeing across the global drone threat landscape—from fiber-optic FPVs and jet-powered attack drones to maritime systems, humanoid robots, and drone-enabled gray-zone operations.

DroneSec tracks how militaries, terrorist organizations, cartels, and other actors use drones, along with the tactics and countermeasures developing around them. Mike explains why that intelligence matters when a tactic that works today may look completely different a year from now.

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Bohdan Volyanyuk is the co-founder and COO of Autonomous Cyber, a company building autonomous capabilities for offensive cyber operations.

Bohdan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bohdanvolyanyuk/

Autonomous Cyber: https://www.acyber.com/

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Bohdan joins the show to explain how AI is changing the cyber kill chain, from discovering vulnerabilities to weaponizing exploits and conducting operations. He argues that cyber should be treated as a persistent domain of conflict rather than something reserved for a small number of exquisite, highly planned operations.

The conversation also covers the similarities between autonomous cyber and autonomous weapons, the offense-defense cycle in cyberspace, Stuxnet, the challenges of selling cyber capabilities to the Department of Defense, startup fundraising, the current tech investment environment, and how cyber operations could shape a future conflict with China.

Bohdan previously served five years in the U.S. Army infantry, including deployments to Iraq and Syria, before attending MIT, where he met his co-founder and started Autonomous Cyber.