Drones: Industry & Defence

Helsing is closing a $1.2 billion round at an $18 billion valuation led by US investors Dragoneer and Lightspeed, with Anduril in parallel talks above $60 billion. AeroVironment won a $1.2 billion Army loitering munition programme, Red Cat reported 849% revenue growth, and Russia's Geranium drones are falling apart in flight as Ukraine landed 347 drones on Moscow on Victory Day eve.

The Pentagon's FY2027 budget request lifts the DAWG line from $225.9 million to $54.6 billion in one cycle and puts $70 billion behind drones and counter-drones. Anduril is now contracted across counter-UAS, CCA and Golden Dome, the first non-prime to hold all three. Australia commits A$7 billion to counter-drones, and DJI books a $1.56 billion regulatory loss.

A £752 million British commitment for 120,000 Ukraine-bound drones, announced in Berlin on 15 April, turns the £4 billion autonomous systems pledge into named contracts for Tekever, Windracers and Malloy Aeronautics. CSIS finds Russia's autonomous drones run on American chips, not Chinese. DroneShield posts record revenue the same week its founding chief executive and chairman walk out.

Iran's ceasefire collapsed within hours. The UAE has now absorbed 2,256 drone attacks, 537 ballistic missiles, and 26 cruise missiles since 28 February. Every major Western drone procurement decision in the past fortnight traces directly to the Gulf operational theatre, from the UK's Skyhammer interceptor buy to Anduril's sole-source Ghost-X contract.

Iran's five-week campaign has fired 4,446 drones at US allies, yet the Pentagon has produced only dozens of its own combat drones. Three directed-energy weapons entered the field in a single month as the industrial base scrambles to close a gap between 300,000-drone ambitions and single-digit production lines.

The US Army awarded Anduril a 10-year, $20 billion enterprise contract vehicle for counter-drone operations, transforming what appeared to be an $87 million task order into a platform monopoly. Shield AI raised $1.5 billion at a $12.7 billion valuation to compete on the same autonomous combat aircraft programme, while Ukraine revealed 10 shadow drone factories built abroad to circumvent its wartime export ban.

London-based Skycutter scored 99.3/100 in the Pentagon's first Drone Dominance Gauntlet, beating US firms with a Ukrainian-partnered FPV design. Anduril's Arsenal-1 factory opened months early to produce CCA drone wingmen, while the Army awarded an $87 million first task order under Anduril's $20 billion counter-drone enterprise contract.