Axios: Outgunned at home


Axios AM
By Mike Allen · Apr 15, 2026
 Hello, Tax Day! Smart Brevity™ count: 1,291 words … 5 mins. Thanks to Noah Bressner for orchestrating. Edited by Andrew Pantazi and Bill Kole. If you’re in D.C. today: Join us at 7:30 a.m. for our blockbuster Axios News Shapers event. I’ll interview Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.). We’ll also talk with Kevin Hassett, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) & more. RSVP.
 
 
1 big thing: Outgunned at home
 
Illustration of a swarm of drones surrounding the State of Liberty's torch.
Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios
 
A Pentagon competition to build out a killer drone fleet ended with a small British company crushing American contractors on their own turf, Axios Future of Defense author Colin Demarest writes.

Why it matters: The Defense Department’s Drone Dominance push is designed to arm American troops with expendable drones on a massive scale in a few short years. It’s also a tacit admission of how ill-prepared the U.S. is to match some combat conditions seen overseas: Roughly 75% of casualties in the Russia–Ukraine war are caused by drones.🔎 

Zoom in: Skycutter — the British company with frontline Ukraine experience — entered the Shrike 10-F, a 10-inch drone that can be operated via fiber optic cable to counter electronic jamming and spoofing.

The drone is the result of collaboration with SkyFall, a Ukrainian outfit.

“They make one every 23 seconds, 123,000 units per month,” Vincent Gardner, Skycutter’s operations director, told Axios. “We redesigned it with them to exclude any Chinese parts or components.”

Gardner was blunt: “A lot of people came with, I would argue, quite overengineered solutions. … These drones, they’re like mechanical wasps. 

The result: It was a blowout. Skycutter scored an overall 99.3 at an attack drone fly-off at Fort Benning in Georgia. In second was Neros, a Southern California startup, at 87.5.

Skycutter, which has a manufacturing footprint in Atlanta, is now under contract for more than 2,500 drones. It plans to boost U.S. manufacturing in the near term.Photo: Presidential Office of Ukraine🔮 

Future of war: Here’s another story that caught Colin’s attention …

viral video is making the rounds of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky bragging about taking a Russian position with only robots and drones.

No human soldiers.Inside the story: Ukraine, outmanned and outgunned by Russia, has spun up a sci-fi-style defense industry.

Zelensky said Ukrainian ground robots carried out more than 22,000 missions in just three months.

Frontline footage from the robots helps fuel fundraising for cheap drones and interceptors.More on the “Gauntlet” … Get Axios Future of Defense.
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About michelleclarke2015

Life event that changes all: Horse riding accident in Zimbabwe in 1993, a fractured skull et al including bipolar anxiety, chronic fatigue …. co-morbidities (Nietzche 'He who has the reason why can deal with any how' details my health history from 1993 to date). 17th 2017 August operation for breast cancer (no indications just an appointment came from BreastCheck through the Post). Trinity College Dublin Business Economics and Social Studies (but no degree) 1997-2003; UCD 1997/1998 night classes) essays, projects, writings. Trinity Horizon Programme 1997/98 (Centre for Women Studies Trinity College Dublin/St. Patrick's Foundation (Professor McKeon) EU Horizon funded: research study of 15 women (I was one of this group and it became the cornerstone of my journey to now 2017) over 9 mth period diagnosed with depression and their reintegration into society, with special emphasis on work, arts, further education; Notes from time at Trinity Horizon Project 1997/98; Articles written for Irishhealth.com 2003/2004; St Patricks Foundation monthly lecture notes for a specific period in time; Selection of Poetry including poems written by people I know; Quotations 1998-2017; other writings mainly with theme of social justice under the heading Citizen Journalism Ireland. Letters written to friends about life in Zimbabwe; Family history including Michael Comyn KC, my grandfather, my grandmother's family, the O'Donnellan ffrench Blake-Forsters; Moral wrong: An acrimonious divorce but the real injustice was the Catholic Church granting an annulment – you can read it and make your own judgment, I have mine. Topics I have written about include annual Brain Awareness week, Mashonaland Irish Associataion in Zimbabwe, Suicide (a life sentence to those left behind); Nostalgia: Tara Hill, Co. Meath.
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