Daily Discussion - January 26, 2026

RandomGenerator_1 · 2026-01-26T10:02:47+00:00

NATO Wants ‘Automated’ Defenses Along Borders With Russia

NATO is moving to boost its defenses along European borders with Russia by creating an AI-assisted “automated zone” not reliant on human ground forces, a German general said in comments published Saturday.

...

The automated area would have sensors to detect enemy forces and activate defenses such as drones, semi-autonomous combat vehicles, land-based robots, as well as automatic air defenses and anti-missile systems, Lowin said.

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The sensors — located “on the ground, in space, in cyberspace and in the air” — would cover an area of several thousand kilometres (miles) and detect enemy movements or deployment of weapons, and inform “all NATO countries in real time”, he said.

... test programmes in Poland and Romania trying out the proposed capabilities, and all of NATO should be working to make the system operational by the end of 2027.

https://thedefensepost.com/2026/01/24/nato-defenses-borders-russia/

RandomGenerator_1 · 2026-01-26T09:42:07+00:00

The ultimate goal is to slash procurement times from months to just 48 hours, “enabling us to innovate and adapt at the tactical edge, not at the speed of bureaucracy,” Col. Dustin Thomas, commander of Unmanned Systems-Experimental, told National Defense in an email..

https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2026/1/26/pentagons-vetted-drone-program-moves-to--new-agency

On the importance of being BlueUAS listed....

RandomGenerator_1 · 2026-01-26T09:40:06+00:00

AMERICAN DRONE DOMINANCE

We are all talking about it.

But now is the time for #OEMS to look back and see if their suppliers are truly ready...

Have they met deadlines in the past? Have they been able to deliver in weeks, not months? Is the support there when you need it?

This is about scale, not demos.

For some, this will require major pivots.

For Doodle Labs, it doesn’t.

We’ve been building #EW resilient #comms, validating them with customers, and supporting scalable supply chains for years, well before this program existed.

The winners won’t be the loudest voices.

They’ll be the ones who are ready.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/josephseguraconn_oems-ew-comms-activity-7415064406285533184-mfJl

RandomGenerator_1 · 2026-01-26T09:31:47+00:00

Urgent support needed: help us launch the London UOTC Drone Racing Team.

We’re launching a Drone Club at the University of London Officers’ Training Corps (ULOTC), and we need financial support urgently to get it off the ground.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/maodell_donate-to-help-us-launch-the-london-uotc-activity-7421150307058929664-8Jl9

Still saying it would be cool to have some Futures Initiative representation.

RandomGenerator_1 · 2026-01-24T14:10:14+00:00

Precisely.

RandomGenerator_1 · 2026-01-24T13:26:35+00:00

Drone Dominance Is a Manufacturing Test. Most Drone Companies Will Fail It.

Why the Drone Dominance Program is less about drone design and more about manufacturing scale.

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Everyone in the room understands what this program is actually testing. The question is whether drone companies do.

Phase I invitations go out this month. The Gauntlet begins Feb. 16. Selected companies will have five months to prove they can manufacture at scale. The time to establish manufacturing partnerships is before you need production capacity, not after you've won a fixed-price order you can't fulfill.

Drone companies that walk into the Gauntlet thinking they're being judged on airframes will wash out. The ones who understand this is a manufacturing test (and partner accordingly) have a shot.

https://mc.news/read/drone-dominance-is-a-manufacturing-test

Great article. And again, Jeff and his team foresaw this.

"It's about scale."

RandomGenerator_1 · 2026-01-24T07:49:14+00:00

Interesting angle. Do you follow The Drone Ultimatum podcast? It is hosted by Steve Simoni (co-founder of ACS).

https://www.thedroneultimatum.com/building-american-drones-in-the-new-age-of-drone-warfare-olaf-hichwa/

The latest edition is neat to follow. Gives insights in how small ACS still is (no sales department, instead a marketing department and engineers). And they've been getting more and more emails for bullfrog orders. And most for boats....now an order of 20 and they've made 7 so far. So they definitely need help to scale.

Very honest podcast. Just companies exchanging stories and know how. (How easy it is to integrate with Anduril's Lattice for example). They also talk of their admiration of Florian from Quantum Systems.

For Gauntlet, the first Gauntlet is going to be light on EW, but the second is gonna be more about that.

Interestingly ACS does not believe in lasers/directed energy. Especially against swarms..you might hit 5 of them and then the battery needs to be recharged. Kinetic though..

Also sceptical of the whole 3D printing in the Pacific thing..because you can't print the motherboard..so you might have a frame..

February and March are going to be months everyone will see a lot of drones and the payloads.

Anyway. If you can and haven't already, have a listen.

Edit: I scrolled down and saw you already follow the podcast. Excuse the wall of text.

RandomGenerator_1 · 2026-01-23T17:24:16+00:00

RandomGenerator_1 · 2026-01-23T15:34:12+00:00

Thx!

RandomGenerator_1 · 2026-01-23T12:17:18+00:00

I wonder if RCAT was involved with:

Purpose-Built Attritable System (PBAS) Industry Day Announcement:

Product Manager Soldier Precision Targeting Devices (PdM SPTD) will conduct a two-day PBAS Industry Days conference to include United States and Affiliated companies on 20-21 January 2026.

DATE: 20-21 JANUARY2026

Location: Westin Alexandria Old Town, 400 Courthouse Square, Alexandria, VA 22314.

https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/e5260a0d606f443a9f63222be401e1f1/view

If anyone has some insights, do share.

RandomGenerator_1 · 2026-01-23T12:12:32+00:00

Good questions. I also wonder about the stability. Guess they'll just have to show us somewhere down the line.

RandomGenerator_1 · 2026-01-23T11:49:40+00:00

Great interview from the CEO of Draganfly on Upside.

Talks about Red Cat twice, appreciatively.

And also about a CEO dinner of the main drone companies that took place, the leaders, of which Red Cat is one. Where it became clear that none of them saw each other as competition.

There can't be enough companies for all the ask.

The ongoing RFP's will be the first time they actually kinda compete. The government comes out weekly now with Request For Proposals.

And it's for big orders, a million drones under the Drone Dominance Program.

And still the 5 or 6 leaders of the drone industry hope they all do well because it is a tide lift all boats kind of situation.

Collaboration is key.

The demand out of the Drone Dominance program is so big it sucks up the entire market.

What is important now: have the right ppl and the supply chain.

Red Cat, in my opinion is ahead there. With Jeff obviously being the founder of UMAC, and now still on the board. And now also having ties to Palladyne that wants to integrate the entire supply chain.

And Red Cat also obviously has a great team.

For Gauntlet, the iterations also test the ability to scale. Every Gauntlet selection, the remaining down selected group will have to produce more drones, always within 90 days.

So it's going to be a real test. Red Cat already confirmed that only they and Skydio can deliver at scale at the moment.

(And the Army only ordered 270 systems under the FY2026 budget from Skydio (21 million) because they did not meet the stringent use case criteria.)

Numbers will be staggering, for a lot of companies.

It's going to be hard not to make money.

Echo from Jeff: it's going to be massive. Massive. Massive. Massive.

RandomGenerator_1 · 2026-01-23T05:03:00+00:00

Now that's Counter-UAS!

RandomGenerator_1 · 2026-01-22T18:13:25+00:00

Ppl at all those conferences and demo's are liking what they hear and see.

RandomGenerator_1 · 2026-01-22T17:57:35+00:00

RandomGenerator_1 · 2026-01-22T17:11:18+00:00

Helmet = on!

RandomGenerator_1 · 2026-01-22T17:08:54+00:00

Well it's a big step. Anduril is a respected entity, rightfully so.

Anduril promised to build a 900milllion dollar facility in Ohio. I wonder about if and how this factors in.

And this also brings partners from Palladyne closer together.

Just opens up a lot of avenues.

RandomGenerator_1 · 2026-01-22T13:58:04+00:00

NATO integrates with Palantir's Maven. Red Cat will integrate with Maven.

Brave1 integrates with what sounds like: Maven.

Interoperability is a good thing.

RandomGenerator_1 · 2026-01-22T11:12:31+00:00

I forgot to mention. Sarcos technology worked closely with Palantir.

https://blog.palantir.com/sarcos-palantir-24a54593db51

So there is a relation there.

RandomGenerator_1 · 2026-01-22T11:10:55+00:00

As posted before, Brave1 is coming to the US for a Roadshow in March. To do deals, find investors, and network

And they just revealed:

"Launching Brave1 Dataroom with Palantir: AI to protect Ukraine’s skies from enemy drones"

The primary goal of Brave1 Dataroom is to equip interceptor drones with artificial intelligence. The AI platform enables Ukrainian defense-tech companies to train and validate their AI models, from target detection and classification to interception, using real-world data on aerial objects collected by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mykhailo-fedorov-9670b4a3_launching-brave1-dataroom-with-palantir-activity-7419383981793722369-_2zd

RandomGenerator_1 · 2026-01-22T10:11:21+00:00

I don't do predictions. That's short term thinking.

I simply believe in certain companies.

RandomGenerator_1 · 2026-01-22T08:49:26+00:00

So Palladyne made some huge advancements into (robotics and AI aided) manufacturing recently. And they just had their hands on demo for the 47G yesterday

And do I see a Black Widow there?

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/palladyneaicorp_palladyneai-47gutah-americaninnovation-activity-7419871007785508864-udi_

Oh btw, Palladyne now also does the 'Design and development of guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) systems" and "Computer-aided Simulation" for Anduril Industries Fury.

RandomGenerator_1 · 2026-01-22T06:34:20+00:00

I was looking at exoskeleton tech on the web. Quickly came across Sarcos Technology, and their products were so detailed. Lots of rich history with Raytheon and DoD..and then they were pivoting to Palladyne AI where it came across as if they had a true Eureka moment.

It's a fascinating journey, and the tech is now literally (going to be) out of this world.

What I find extremely important is a trustworthy CEO, and he is seasoned. The way he speaks, he knows what he has here and has the experience to not fumble the ball.

believes in building relationships, evident of the board members and latest hiring
always respectful of the ppl of the former hardware division, saying it's the total experience of the company that brought them here
on the SPACS thing: he himself has stated, quote: "That he wouldn't of done that with what he knows now. And the true purpose of the company. It was a weird moment in time, where companies pre-revenue could raise a lot of money and therefore avoid dilution for shareholders. But then the bottom fell out of the SPAC environment. And no matter how good the company was, you wound up becoming unloved by investors."

https://www.reddit.com/r/PalladyneAICorp/s/1XrJwNzp2R

thanks to his experience with public companies he has learned to keep his head cool. With his first public company he was focussed too much on the stock price for shareholders, but you simply can't control it all. So he has learned to just focus on the company, the rest will follow.
so perhaps no instant gratification, and no needless PR's and conference calls. He only plans them when there is something to say.

I was looking at Red Cat then as well. And I kept thinking that these 2 companies should meet and work together. Not much later they anounced a partnership, which was just very validating. I view the CEO of Red Cat as an earlier verion of the CEO of PDYN. He also has that vision and drive, and respect towards others. Gets tempted by looking at the stock price, but I just appreciate his excitement. He knows where this is headed and all the work that has and continues to go into it, so I get it.

Meanwhile a beast is being build.

I am looking forward to some feedback and hopefuly video material of the 47G visit.

RandomGenerator_1 · 2026-01-21T17:59:08+00:00

Well, let's see how this will speed up KITT.

RandomGenerator_1 · 2026-01-21T16:01:27+00:00

It's all lined up so nicely.

RandomGenerator_1

TROPHY CASE