Industrial Base Alpha

Industrial Base Alpha

Drone Dominance

The Pentagon's $1.1B Gauntlet is the event all defense tech VCs are watching

Matthew Bernard's avatar
Matthew Bernard
Feb 16, 2026
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BLUF: The Pentagon just invited 25 companies to compete for $1.1 billion in drone contracts, but investors have already poured nearly that much capital into the space. With major drone producers notably absent, a target price of $2,300 per drone, and no clear US combat scenario requiring 300,000 attritable systems, this program reveals a troubling misma…

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