The Drone Ultimatum

Brothers Malin Crewse, an aerospace and electrical engineer, and LeGrand Crewse, a consumer-product entrepreneur, are building Corvus Industries’ low-cost kinetic interceptors for countering drones. They discuss fiber-optic drones, the limits of electronic warfare, affordable missile stockpiles, seeker technology, solid rocket motors, and maneuvering targets. They also share the realities of co-founding a defense company, financing it themselves, and navigating procurement.

Derek McBride, a Department of War Innovation Unit portfolio manager focused on autonomous warfare, explores the Pentagon’s $1.1 billion Drone Dominance program. He discusses challenge-based acquisition, scaling American manufacturing, resilient supply chains, FPV training, counter-drone defenses, interceptors, electronic warfare, autonomy, swarms, and the rising role of private capital in modern warfare.

Josh Giegel, Gambit’s founder and CEO, previously engineered SpaceX’s Merlin engines and co-founded Hyperloop Technologies. Ben Richardson, its former Marine and defense-innovation leader, joins him to explore the software coordinating swarms of robots. They discuss autonomous kill chains, electronic warfare, ISR, motherships, cross-domain teams, robot engagement zones, and the difficult path from battlefield demos to defense contracts.

Brian Taylor, aerospace engineer and founder of Lux Aeterna, explores the future of reusable spacecraft. They discuss how falling launch costs are reshaping space economics, why defense customers can help prove breakthrough hardware, and how reusable fleets could improve orbital logistics and reduce debris. Taylor also shares the realities of solo founding, hiring space veterans, fundraising, and preparing Lux Aeterna’s first mission.

Mike Monnik, founder and CEO of DroneSec, tracks drone tactics used by militaries, terrorists, and cartels. He explores fiber-optic FPVs, jet-powered attacks, maritime drones, autonomous narco-subs, humanoid robots, and gray-zone warfare. They also discuss Ukraine’s drone advantage, drone-only kill zones, underground operations, and why defenses struggle to keep pace.

Bohdan Volyanyuk, co-founder and COO of Autonomous Cyber and former U.S. Army infantry officer and MIT alum, discusses how AI is transforming the cyber kill chain. He talks about autonomous discovery of vulnerabilities, scaling agents versus human operators, cyber persistence as a continuous domain of conflict, Stuxnet-style high-value effects, and challenges around fundraising and selling cyber capabilities.

Alex Fink, President & U.S. CEO of Swarmer and former imaging entrepreneur, builds software to let drones think and act together. He discusses Swarmer’s software-first OS for swarms. Short segments cover resilient local comms and jamming tolerance. He describes Ukraine missions, mixed UGV/USV operations, and why military robotics may mirror the early PC software landscape.

Russell Smith, co-founder and CEO of 9 Mothers, builds small, deployable autonomous counter-UAS systems after a YC and enterprise-software background. He discusses acoustic sensing and lightweight, widely deployable sensors. He explains shotgun-based kinetic turrets, belt-fed weapon development, and the engineering path from prototypes to reliable robotic defense systems.

Scott Hutchins, Chief Product Officer who scales product and brings Bullfrog to market, and Luke Allen, co-founder and CTO who built the Bullfrog autonomous counter-drone system. They discuss why Bullfrog targets an almost-impossible technical problem. They talk about long robotics engineering cycles, where AI and computer vision fit, ethics of autonomous weapons, and how drone warfare may evolve next.

Nic Adams is the Director of Government Relations at Overland AI.Nic on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nic-adams208/Overland AI: https://www.overland.ai/Steve on X: https://x.com/StevenSimoniSteve on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevensimoni/Follow the show!Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3F1sc8yzQIF9WcdHQ3w7kfApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-drone-ultimatum/id1770994541⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to our Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: https://thedroneultimatum.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X (Twitter)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: https://x.com/DroneUltimatum⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-drone-ultimatum/Our website: https://www.thedroneultimatum.com/This week on The Drone Ultimatum, Nic Adams, Director of Government Relations at Overland AI, joins us to discuss what it actually takes for a defense startup to move from promising technology to real military programs.We cover:How defense appropriations become actual contractsThe realities of Pentagon procurement and productionAutonomous ground vehicles and the future of land warfareWhy robots will increasingly take on dangerous missionsLessons from Ukraine and the changing battlefieldBuilding defense companies that can scaleNic also shares his perspective on Congress, budgeting, acquisition timelines, and what founders often misunderstand about selling into the Department of Defense.