The following is a Colin Guinn and Guinn Partners release.
Domestic creators of drone hardware have had a hard time competing with China over the last 10 years. I’ve been a part of both sides with DJI and 3DR, and seen the complexities that come with competing with a vertically integrated powerhouse in Shenzhen, an increasingly technologically savvy world technology hub.
The US Government has seen these challenges as well, and recently declared SUAS technology essential to national defense. They then released an RFI soliciting input from industry so they can create an investment roadmap to increase domestic capability and capacity in the essential area of SUAS technology. This is an interesting opportunity for companies of all kinds in industry to provide input on the technology that will be critical for ensuring US relevance in the SUAS market across the technology chain -> hardware, sensors, software and tangential tech included.
In this video, Jason and I break down the Defense Production Act and why US drone companies should participate in this process and answer this RFI before 30 September. On this page we also list (with links) the domestic companies like Teal, Vantage, Impossible Aerospace and more that all were selected as part of the DIU/USArmy Short Range Reconnaissance (SRR) initiative to work with commercial drone companies to build small, inexpensive aircraft that platoons can use for situational awareness.