How drone races gave birth to this advanced drone company

More and more American drone companies are growing while technology takes care of the civil and military sectors.

Ukraine war has revealed what drones can do in battle, and the Pentagon is working hard on technology, as planned army overhaul.

With increased demand comes from new companies wishing to become a suppliers. But Performance drone operationOr PDW, was not born from a sudden interest in the unrealized war. Instead, it came from colorful quadcopters and television flight routes Drone Racing LeagueWhere talented pilots would pilot drones through complex obstacles to speeds up to 90 mph.

Drone races in Battlefield Tech

PDW is an emanation from the famous international race league. The company presented itself six years ago to approach the lack of American suppliers who developed advanced robotics, Ryan Gurysaid the CEO and co-founder of the company, told Business Insider. All the drones piloted by the pilots of the League are the same and manufactured by DRL, and this is where Gury entered: Drone Design.

Now PDW makes drones for the army.

The priority is to make drones, such as their C100 flagship and other technologies, “which are small and tactical and to be deployed by unique units,” said Gury. “This is our thesis.”

The C100 is a light quadcopter designed to hold in a backpack and can fly over 70 minutes, up to 40 MPH, with a payload of 10 pounds. The latter can be adjusted according to the requirements of the mission. PDW also plans to start a new first -person drone this summer. The company announced more than $ 15 million in C100 contracts and sales to the US military in December.

For many years, combat drones were large fixed sail planes cost millions, but there is a growing interest Inexpensive inexpensive aerial systems This can be used at the squad level, that fighters could continue their person, even in their pockets. THE War of Ukraine has shown that small UAS platforms can monitor the battlefield, strike missions, bombing, etc.

The key to the progress of this target and mass drones are large -scale affordable systems, close and flexible relationships with the Ministry of Defense and a reliable interior supply chain which does not depend on foreign components.

A booming company

PDW is based in Huntsville, in Alabama, where the production rate on C100 has exceeded expectations. They exceeded the factory that they thought they were lasting a few years in just eight or nine months.

“A year ago, on our board of directors, we are thinking:” Can we produce 30 per month? “” The retirement general Tony Thomas of the command of American special operations, now Chairman of the Board of Directors of PDW. Now, the company is 70 per month, and soon it will double this. For their next FPV productGury said he expects figures that exceed current production figures.

The tests occur throughout the PDW drone manufacturing process, Dylan Hamm, Director of PDW technology who built small drones while serving as a naval seal, told Bi. The tests involve everything, to ensure that the drone has the desired payload capacity to assess the weather, temperatures, altitude, land and countermeasure.

“We are testing our drones every day,” he said. “Whether it is the function of flight test installations that adapt to our design objectives or take them to field events.”

The manufacture of drones requires flexibility given the rapidly evolving battle space. There is a lot to learn from electronic war Counter-measurement systems and the rapid rhythm of innovation occur in Ukraine. “When you have these systems in these complex operating environments that change constantly, we must be ready to adapt,” said Hamm.

Systems design for new fights

PDW has American veterans through their workforce and leadership – 20% and 63%, respectively. In conversations with Bi, the PDW staff who had served spoke The role of the drone in the fightThe need to work closely with individual fighters on these systems and the accelerated pace of adaptation and evolution.

Veterans bring a unique perspective to defense companies, but on advanced systems, they must look beyond their own experiences.

“If we design the system for wars that Dylan and I fought a few years ago, we are late,” the PDW income director, Chuck McGraw, told Bi, another former seal.

The kind of fighting that has been seen in Ukraine has shown that the future of war will be very different from past conflicts. Matt Higgins, one of the co-founders of PDW, said that “the fact that you can take a drone of $ 1,000 and eliminate a tank of $ 8 million is an asymmetrical advantage that the world is never going”.

Drones and other AUs like blur ammunition changed the game. The question is not what these systems do but If the United States has the industrial capacity to follow.

The C100 of PDW is designed and made entirely in the United States and does not contain any Chinese manufacturing parts; The majority of the drone parties come from American companies. The American army cannot simply seize the DJI drones of the shelf, which complicates purchases. Military leadership is impatient to Strengthen national industry for drones But also for other weapons, ammunition and assets.

Gury and Thomas highlighted the growing number of new companies in the defense industry, in particular those working on drones, artificial intelligence and autonomous capacities and other elements of future war. Thomas said that it was a truly frantic environment, a moment when there is “a real animus” to move away from the inherited systems that may not win the next war and really “access the transformational capacities”.