WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
- Neros led confined environment testing, while Perennial Autonomy captured first place in the deep strike category.
- The War Department ordered 14,000 drones from Neros and 8,000 from Perennial based on the competition rankings.
- Neros has secured roughly $100 million in orders after placing second, third and first across completed competitions.
- Gauntlet 2.5 begins in October with bomber platform testing, while the third phase is expected next spring.
Two California startups captured the leading positions in the latest phase of Drone Dominance, the Pentagon competition searching for companies capable of producing high quality, low cost commercial drones at scale. Neros Technologies and Perennial Autonomy topped separate testing categories.
According to the competition leaderboard, Neros earned the highest score in confined environment testing. Perennial claimed first place in deep strike testing, where operators launched attacks from beyond the range of enemy defenses.
Those rankings directly shape Pentagon purchasing decisions, with stronger performers receiving larger orders. The War Department ordered 14,000 drones from Neros and another 8,000 from Perennial following the latest round of competition.
Neros also placed third in the deep strike category, demonstrating its platform across two different mission sets. The company was founded in 2023 by competitive drone racers and identified its winning entry as the Archer AI drone.
Gold. Upgraded. Buy real gold from $1. Store it in America. Sell it with one click.
The company described Archer as a 10 inch model “built with Terminal Guidance functionality that allows the drone to fly itself to an operator-selected target, a critical feature in the comms-denied environments military operators face today.”
Soren Monroe-Anderson, the company’s chief executive and cofounder, called Archer “highly modular and easily adapted to end-user needs.” His statement emphasized the company’s combination of engineering work and feedback from military personnel using the system.
Image Credit: DoW
“Pairing real warfighter feedback with our deep engineering talent is the reason Neros is the only manufacturer to have placed in the top three across two fundamentally different mission sets — deep strike and close-quarters battle — with the same drone platform,” Monroe-Anderson said.
This Could Be the Most Important Video Gun Owners Watch All Year
The War Department launched Drone Dominance in December 2025 as an effort to expand the military’s inventory of commercial drones. Its plans included investing $1 billion directly into the domestic drone market.
Since the competition began, the Pentagon has completed one and a half phases, known as Gauntlets, as well as three operational tests. Neros finished second, third and first across those competitions, securing roughly $100 million in orders.
Perennial’s leading deep strike design was “tested across rigorous find-fix-finish objectives at various long-range beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) distances,” according to the company. Operators also flew the design during both daytime and nighttime missions.
Image Credit: DoW
“The systems proved their operational reliability under heavily contested conditions, to deliver precise, autonomous engagement when it counted,” Perennial said in a press release. The performance placed the company atop the deep strike testing category and helped produce an order for 8,000 drones.
Earlier this year, the War Department awarded Perennial a $500 million contract through Joint Interagency Task Force 401, also known as JIATF-401. The organization is responsible for researching, testing and procuring counter-drone technology for the department.
Perennial was founded in 2023 by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. The company developed the Merops interceptor for Ukrainian forces to counter the one way attack drones used by Russia.
Drone Dominance is scheduled to move into Gauntlet 2.5 beginning in October, when officials will evaluate bomber platforms. That testing will mark the next stage as the Pentagon continues sorting companies by operational performance.
Image Credit: DoW
The third phase is expected to begin next spring. Under the current schedule, the broader competition will conclude next fall after the additional bomber platform and third phase evaluations are completed.
For Neros and Perennial, the latest leaderboard delivered substantial orders while establishing each company as the strongest performer in a specific mission category. Future Gauntlets will determine how the rankings shift as Drone Dominance moves toward its scheduled conclusion.
Gold is the oldest answer. SoundMoney makes owning it as easy as the apps you already use.
The opinions expressed by contributors and/or content partners are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of LifeZette. Contact us for guidelines on submitting your own commentary.
Read the full article here
