Al Root
The military importance of drones is only going to grow, and the boiling cauldron of the Ukraine-Russia war has yielded some of the most advanced drone technology -- much of which the U.S. now wants to acquire quickly.
"Uncrewed and autonomous systems...are going to be part of every major conflict in the foreseeable future," says Aevex CEO Roger Wells.
Aevex is a California-based maker of drones and loitering munitions that recently completed its IPO on April 17. The company sold shares at $20. They closed at $33.95 on Monday, which generated about $430 million in 2025 sales, a market value of roughly $3.7 billion.
It's a lofty multiple of sales, which shows just how interested the stock market is in identifying winning drone technology.
Drones have "been validated in Ukraine. [They've] been validated in Iran, " added Wells. "It's going to be part of modern force structure, looking forward."
They will come in all shapes and sizes. Currently, the U.S. military uses five broad classifications. Category one is for the smallest drones, generally used for surveillance. Group three drones can carry strike munitions, while group five drones are the most advanced and expensive, such as the Reaper made by San Diego-based General Atomics.
The U.S. might be the leader in category five drones. The Pentagon, however, is looking to quickly scale up access to lower-cost drones.
Key to that effort is the " Drone Dominance" program, a billion-dollar initiative by the Defense Department, created after President Trump's 2025 executive order aimed at "unleashing American drone dominance."
The new program is running tests called Gauntlets. The goal of Gauntlet I was to find one-way attack drones costing up to $5,000 each. More than two dozen vendors were invited to Georgia to compete in February and March.
The company taking the top spot on Gauntlet I's leaderboard was Skycutter, a British startup that partnered with Ukrainian drone company SkyFall.
SkyFall, to say the least, has been battle-tested. Founded in 2022 by four engineers in a garage, the company can now produce tens of thousands of drones per month. SkyFall's P1-Sun intercepts other drones, like Russia's versions of Iran's Shahed drones. Its Vampire is a hexacopter used for striking enemy targets.
The drone that led Gauntlet I was Shrike, a first-person-view, or FPV, strike drone using a 12-mile fiber-optic tether. The cable makes Shrike effectively unjammable and provides clear images for the operator.
Shrike scored 99.3. Second place went to Neros with 87.5. It makes the Archer FPV drone. The next three spots went to Napatree, ModalAI, and Auterion. Napatree makes Bumblebee and Hornet drones, ModalAI makes the Stinger drone, and Auterion demonstrated swarm technology.
None of those are household names yet. Gauntlet I resulted in $150 million in spending on 30,000 drones. Next up is Gauntlet II, which should generate $300 million for 60,000 drones. The competition will include longer-range strikes and night operations. Qualifiers must bring 120 drones to the contest.
The $150 million and $300 million checks are just a start. The fiscal year 2027 budget request for the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group, or DAWG, is $54 billion, up from $226 million in 2026. Total spending on drones and anti-drone tech, including DAWG, should top $70 billion.
That's a lot of money to bolster America's drone game. And the Gauntlet events are helping the military deploy that money efficiently.
Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
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April 28, 2026 11:38 ET (15:38 GMT)
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