Items dated 2026-04-27 through 2026-05-04
Welcome to the first report from the Defense Industrial Base’s scrawny kid brother, the Drone Industrial Base. Here’s where we break down the news, we detect a little bullshit, and we connect the dots that that get lost in the shuffle.
Here’s the one we’re watching. COCO, or “Contractor-Owned, Contractor-Operated” is something we heard at Sea Air Space, and it’s worth keeping an eye on. And snarking about, just a little. Indulge us, but Insitu just low-key said:
“Uber for ISR”
The cliché tax is brutal (Uber for X was every bad VC pitch from 2014 to 2018), but it’s serious business, here. The punchline is that DOW has unironically built what Silicon Valley was cosplaying about a decade ago. COCO + IDIQ + per-sortie task orders + you summon capability when you need it is literally the rideshare model. The press releases just don’t say it that way.
Moving on to more nuts and bots: Hitec gets some props for a servo that speaks CAN/DroneCAN. It’s not fancy, but it’s an honest day’s work. SITREP prediction: “CAN all the things” will be a theme for the next couple of years. The evolution: PWM uses a wire per servo, while CAN puts them all on one bus with the telemetry plane. Native CAN at this price point used to be Volz/Savöx territory at $200+ per axis.
Last, the Element announcement about new capability in Huntsville is worth a nod. As systems mature, focus will fall on characterization, testing and envelopes. “Enabling customers to run entire critical test programmes in a single facility.” Yep. Vibration, shock, MIPS, thermal. Yep.
The bullshit detector didn’t go off this week. That’s good.
Maybe this scrawny kid, the “Drone Industrial Base”, can grow up.
https://www.insitu.com/news/insitus-scaneagle-and-integrator-uas-selected-by-us-navy-to-deliver-intelligence-surveillance-and-reconnaissance-isr-services-with-advanced-ai-assisted-payloads
Date: 2026-05-04 · Bingen, WA. Insitu (a Boeing subsidiary) has been selected to provide ISR support services to the US Navy, US Marine Corps, and other US Government customers under a Contractor-Owned, Contractor-Operated (COCO) framework. Insitu will compete with other selected partners for task orders using both ScanEagle and Integrator UAS. The company has provided ISR services to the USN since 2005 and the USMC since 2004. CEO Diane Rose cited updated autonomy and resilience capabilities on both platforms. Distribution: NAVAIR Public Release SPR-2026-0246.
Integrator endurance is up to 27.5 hours with 50 lb payload across 10 bays; range is 2,000 nm point-to-point or 13 hours on station at 500 nm. ScanEagle endurance is 18+ hours with 17 lb payload. Both feature FLARES no-sacrifice VTOL and extended-range SATCOM. The published capability menu spans AI-enabled multi-spectral / multi-sensor payloads, electronic warfare, communications relay, hyperspectral wide-area search, targeting, and kinetics. Resilience features include alt-nav for GPS/GNSS-denied environments and PLEO SATCOM BLOS control. Cumulative fleet stats: 1.6M+ operational hours, operations from 45+ ship classes across 6 continents, 35+ international military customers, and 3,500+ aircraft fielded.
https://doodlelabs.com/blog/winning-the-spectrum-the-rise-of-multi-band-resilient-communications/
Date: 2026-05 (technical blog). Doodle Labs argues that multi-band radio architectures are now required for spectrum-resilient drone communications in active EW environments. Frequency hopping within a single band remains effective against narrowband jamming but is defeated by wideband and adaptive jammers; power amplification does not address operating in a contested band. A multi-band architecture provides spectrum agility (real-time band switching), true redundancy (fallback when a primary band is denied), global deployment readiness across regulatory regimes, and network-level mesh resilience.
Cited evidence: 2024 EW testing in Ukraine under the US Army’s Short Range Reconnaissance (SRR) program, in which Teal systems equipped with Doodle Labs’ Mesh Rider radios (in partnership with Red Cat) resisted Russian jamming. Doodle Labs’ Sense Technology continuously monitors interference across up to six frequency ranges on a single radio and automatically switches to a cleaner channel or band. Products are Blue UAS approved and NDAA-compliant.
https://www.element.com/about-element/news/2026/05/01/element-huntsville-established-as-strategic-hub-for-innovation
Date: 2026-05-01 · Huntsville, AL. Element Materials Technology announced a major expansion of its Huntsville laboratory. Huntsville is now home to US Space Command headquarters following the relocation finalized last year. The expansion adds environmental, dynamics, and EMI/EMC services to a facility that previously had nuclear testing capabilities. Qualification services span vibration, shock, MIPS, thermal, vacuum, acoustic, and electromagnetic compatibility testing. The expansion also enabled launch of dedicated product qualification testing for small modular reactor (SMR) programs, which Element calls an industry first; spokesperson Demidovich tied this to Element’s heritage in oil-and-gas qualification rigor extended to nuclear, hydrogen, and other emerging technologies.
https://www.toraytac.com/newsroom/news-item/2026/4/28/Toray-Announces-Preceramic-Resin-System-at-SAMPE
Date: 2026-04-28 · Seattle, WA. Toray Advanced Composites announced the addition of TC1810 — a polysiloxane-based preceramic thermoset resin system — to its prepreg portfolio at the SAMPE 2026 Conference (Booth L8) in Seattle. TC1810 is described as one of the highest-temperature thermoset resins available with prepreg, and is exclusively offered by Toray Advanced Composites. Cure profile starts as low as 225°C (437°F); operating temperature range is 260°C to 1000°C (500°F to 1832°F) with little to no weight loss.
The system is co-curable, supports multiple reinforcement options, and is processable via hand layup and Automated Fiber Placement (AFP/ATL). Targeted applications include battery containment, thermal protection systems (TPS), heat shields, leading edges, and hypersonic components for aerospace, defense, Advanced Air Mobility (AAM), and space launch industries. Spokesperson: Chantel Camardese, Thermoset Product Manager. Samples available on request. Toray Advanced Composites is a subsidiary of the Toray Group with operations in North America, Europe, and Asia.
https://www.sphengineering.com/news/demo-day-in-texas-usa-april-2026
Date: 2026-04-28 (event held). SPH Engineering Demo Day held April 28, 2026 at the company’s office in Pflugerville, Texas. One-day event with live demos of drone-integrated sensor technologies: magnetometers, GPR, echo sounders, methane detectors. Themes: real-time data collection and processing, sensor-to-drone integration workflows, terrain-following/obstacle avoidance. Audience targeting and event format mirror the European demo days. Free registration with limited spots.
https://www.litruebattery.com/news/who-is-the-best-manufacturer-of-lifepo4-cells/
Date: 2026-04 (SEO companion piece). Companion listicle to the prior article, focused exclusively on LFP cell manufacturer evaluation. The framing argues “best” is application-dependent, then identifies three baseline manufacturer-qualification signals: (1) proprietary electrode formulation control versus simple cell assembly — manufacturers should be able to articulate the difference between their energy-type and power-type LFP formulations technically; (2) formation and grading infrastructure, with OCV grading data and capacity-distribution histograms available on request; (3) verifiable in-house long-term cycle testing data with retention curves at cycle 500/1,000/2,000 under standardized 1C/1C/25°C conditions to 80% SOH.
Cell-level evaluation criteria recommended: energy density (target 160–170 Wh/kg for LFP, with NMC required above that range), separation of continuous vs. pulse C-rate ratings, derating curves at temperature extremes (not just nominal range), and stacked-pouch vs. wound-cell architecture preferences for high-cycle applications. Product deep-dive uses Litrue’s PJ20F-E (20Ah, 164 Wh/kg) and PA50F-E (50Ah, 167 Wh/kg) energy-type LFP pouch cells, rated -30°C to +55°C and ≥3,000 cycles at 1C/1C, as the worked example.
https://www.hiteccs.com/news/NEW-RELEASE-BD10BL-CAN-DroneCAN
Date: 2026-04-28. Hitec Commercial Solutions announced the BD10BL-CAN-DroneCAN, a brushless digital servo for small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS). Specifications: 10mm case size; 4.0V–8.4V voltage range; torque 2.8 kgf·cm at 7.4V; speed 0.09 sec/60° (111.1 RPM at 7.4V); weight 11.8g (0.416 oz); dimensions 25.0 × 10.0 × 28.0 mm. Construction uses lightweight super-engineered plastic (SEP).
Reliability claims: MTTF >500 hours; 1.2 million-cycle durability rating. Command protocol support: CAN 2.0A/B and DroneCAN. Compliance: NDAA-compliant, manufactured with all non-Chinese components. Hitec Commercial Solutions is a division of Hitec Group USA, Inc.
https://epropelled.com/blogs/blog/electric-vs-diesel-in-indian-agriculture-which-really-costs-less-per-acre
Date: 2026-04-28. Authored by Dr. Azhagar Raj M, Director of Engineering India at ePropelled. TCO/cost-per-acre argument for electric versus diesel propulsion in Indian agriculture. Diesel engines operate at ~30–35% efficiency, with significant heat losses worsened in 45°C+ Indian conditions, fuel consumption during idle/low-load operation, and unpredictable fuel costs driven by geopolitical supply factors. India’s TREM V emission norms (effective 2026) are expected to raise diesel equipment costs further. Electric propulsion is cited at 85–90% efficiency.
ePropelled markets a system-level Indian agriculture portfolio: the Rhino series Ground Propulsion Motors (GPMs) for UGV applications (seeding, weeding, tilling) and the Falcon and Sparrow series for UAV propulsion. UAV applications are tied to the Indian government’s Drone Didi scheme — 15,000 spraying drones distributed to women’s self-help groups (SHGs) for fertilizer/pesticide application services, with 20-litre+ payload requirements. Proprietary technology: eDTS (Electric Dynamic Torque Switching), which switches between high-speed and high-torque modes electronically without mechanical gearboxes; cited benefits include 20°C thermal improvement and 3–5× coverage versus combustion-engine equivalents. ePropelled positions as a “System-Level Technology Solutions Partner” with battery and hybrid powertrains designed and manufactured in India.