What was said at SBA's Defense Industrial Base Drone Summit

September 24, 2026 · Recap by The Autonomy Runway Team

The U.S. Small Business Administration hosted the Defense Industrial Base Drone Summit on Thursday, September 24, 2026. The White House, the Department of War, the Army, the FCC, lenders, investors, and drone makers spoke about one goal: building drones and drone parts in America at scale, without depending on China. Here is what was said in five of the sessions, in plain language, for companies that could not be there.

The panel had Dr. Sebastian Gorka, who heads counterterrorism for the President and leads the President's drone task force; Travis Metz, deputy director of the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), who helps run the Drone Dominance Program; and the Army's small drone lead at Army Materiel Command.

The commercial side is the gap

Dr. Gorka said the defense side of drone policy is on track, and the gap is in commercial drones: delivery, firefighting, and logistics. He said companies building commercial drones do not get the national security waivers that defense suppliers can, so they need U.S. parts and materials, including rare earths from non-adversary countries. His message to small businesses and investors was that autonomous logistics is the bigger long-term market, and that the next large aerospace companies can come from this room. He said his team has a new drone director and invited companies to reach the team through the Commercial Drone Alliance.

Drone Dominance: orders every six months

Travis Metz described the Drone Dominance Program: $1.1 billion, a competition (a "Gauntlet") about every six months, and a purchase order at the end of each one.

• Gauntlet 1 at Fort Benning bought 30,000 drones in March. He said about 25,000 had been delivered.
• Gauntlet 2 at Fort Carson ran in August and September. He said orders for 60,000 drones were being placed that week, and that it would be the first Department order with no Chinese brushless motors.
• He said the request for Gauntlet 3 would be issued the following week, for an event in March to buy 100,000 drones.
• New categories: a bomber and dropper drone competition in October at Camp Grayling, Michigan; a long-range one-way strike competition in November in Utah; and a long-duration surveillance (ISR) competition in the first quarter of 2027.
• A supply chain framework sets where components may come from, and he said each new pathway posted on dronedominance.mil will list unit volumes, prices, and total funding.

He said the program has invited Ukrainian drone companies to compete, that part of the deal is a commitment to build in America, and that the supply chain framework requires final assembly in the U.S., on the way to becoming American drone companies. He said Ukraine will make about 8 million quadcopters this year, in factories he compared to any factory in the U.S., and that cost is what lets Ukraine field drones in mass.

Army depots can make parts for you

The Army's small drone lead described the Army's organic industrial base: 23 government-owned depots, arsenals, and ammunition plants. They now have machining, circuit card assembly lines, brushless motor lines, battery integration, and propeller molding for small drones. He said the Army is not trying to compete with industry. It wants to partner with companies that have a strong drone but cannot yet afford their own machine shop or cannot yet source domestic motors and circuit cards, and to supply those parts. Army Materiel Command signed its first such arrangement in August, between Tobyhanna Army Depot and the drone company Darkhive, under a law that lets Army industrial facilities work with outside companies.

He also pointed to the Army's drone marketplace, where units can buy drones more directly.

AUVSI moderated. The panel had a U.S. drone parts maker, Performance Drone Works (PDW), and a Deputy Assistant Secretary of War who co-chairs the new Smaller War Plants Commission.

The rules opened a market

The parts maker said federal action removed foreign suppliers from a U.S. market that was already large. He put U.S. sales at about a million drones a year, including consumer drones. He said this gap is the reason companies like his can raise money, and that rules alone are not enough: government money flowing into the supply chain is what makes the gap possible to fill.

Every tier is moving together

He described a push at every level of the supply chain at the same time. Drone makers buy allied parts, such as Japanese or Taiwanese motors, while U.S. motor makers scale up. Motor makers buy allied magnets while U.S. magnet production grows. The goal he described is enough production capacity at home and with allies, not a new dependency on any one country.

The hardest parts to make at home

PDW named the components that are hardest to make in the U.S. at a good price: image sensors (mostly Japanese today), thermal cameras, micro gimbals, small brushless motors with Hall-effect sensors, high-energy battery cells, and battery management systems. He said requirements are moving toward more autonomy, onboard computing, digital sensors, and encryption.

Waivers are not the plan

The Department of War official said new Department procurement restrictions go beyond the FCC Covered List. He told companies not to count on waivers: the waiver, in his words, "is not going to be the default."

The 1260H list as a road map

He pointed companies to the Department of War's list of Chinese military companies, known as the Section 1260H list. The June 2026 update was published in the Federal Register on June 10, 2026 (federalregister.gov); the notice lists Chinese military companies, and law firms count 188 entities. He said companies can use the list to see where American or allied suppliers are needed, and that his office pairs companies that can fill those gaps with the companies that need them.

The Smaller War Plants Commission

SBA and the Department of War created the Commission on August 25, 2026. Drones and one-way attack systems are among its priority areas, along with munitions, microelectronics, critical minerals, sensors, batteries, castings and forgings, shipbuilding components, and textiles. The official said the Commission is studying smaller manufacturers and sole-source gaps and will report to the President every quarter. He said capital will follow the study, drawing on SBA's 90% loan guarantees, the Office of Strategic Capital, the Department's industrial base fund, and its Mentor-Protégé Program.

LYNX

The official pointed companies to LYNX (lynxconnect.io), the Department's supplier readiness portal, launched in January 2026. Companies build a profile, complete a readiness assessment, and get a roadmap. He said it also matches companies to solicitations, and that his office is looking for capable companies of any size, especially those that have never worked with the Department.

Tell them what is in the way

The official asked companies to tell the Department about barriers that an executive action could remove. He named recent changes made after industry feedback, including changes to CMMC, the Department's cybersecurity certification. He also named workforce as one of the biggest concerns and mentioned a new Department effort with Mike Rowe to promote the skilled trades.

An investor from a fund in SBA's SBIC Critical Technologies Initiative moderated. The panel had a retired Army general who worked on the U.S. logistics response for Ukraine, a leader from AEVEX Aerospace (maker of the Phoenix Ghost drone), and a former F-22 pilot who now works at Red 6, an augmented-reality training company.

Where the supply chain is weakest

The general said about 90% of the magnets in drone motors and 95% or more of battery cells come from China, less than half of critical semiconductors are made in the U.S., and the country has lost much of its castings and forgings capacity. He said the fix is predictable funding, policies that free up private companies, and common standards. He added that the Army's own depots and the commercial industrial base need clear, separate roles so they do not compete without knowing it.

Stable orders keep suppliers alive

The AEVEX leader said the biggest lesson from scaling is supply chain stability. Even a warm supply chain takes months to become a hot one, and small suppliers who stop getting orders move on to other work. He said the government needs a long-term plan with large numbers and many vendors, because no single company can build it all.

Design for speed

He described two-week design cycles for Phoenix Ghost early in the war: planes built, shipped, flown, and redesigned from field feedback. The general said Ukrainian factories now redesign, re-release, and re-produce a drone in less than weeks. Their advice to U.S. companies: make drones modular, open, and changeable through software and plug-and-play parts, and do not hold one-way attack drones to the qualification standards of crewed aircraft.

Training is part of readiness

The former F-22 pilot said fighter jets are shooting down $20,000 drones with million-dollar missiles, and he sees a training gap behind that. He said crews need to practice with drones in synthetic and live-virtual environments before they meet them in combat, that training builds the trust operators need in their systems, and that training should be funded alongside the hardware.

The panel had the Department of War's Office of Strategic Capital (OSC), JPMorgan Chase, and SBA, with a moderator from the investment fund side.

OSC: large, long, and flexible

The OSC speaker said the office looks first at national security fit and technical readiness, then underwrites credit like a lender. He described deals of roughly $100 million to $1 billion and more, terms of 10 to 20 years, and the ability to defer interest for 5 to 10 years while a company builds. Everything OSC funds must be dual use, with both defense and commercial markets. On July 31, 2026, OSC offered PDW a conditional loan commitment of up to $820 million to expand U.S. manufacturing of critical drone components.

JPMorgan: show the demand

The JPMorgan speaker said a lender needs a clear demand signal it can underwrite. That means a public program number (he pointed to the Drone Dominance program's published figures), key customers willing to vouch for the company, and a portfolio beyond a single program, including commercial sales. He said government terms are a second language for most bankers, and asked companies to explain them in plain banking terms and to come early with large needs.

SBA: long terms and working capital

The SBA speaker described three programs. The 7(a) loan offers terms of up to 10 years for working capital and up to 25 years for real estate. The 504 loan covers land, buildings, and equipment with a long-term fixed rate. MARC is SBA's first loan program built for manufacturers, a 7(a) working capital loan up to $5 million that can be a revolving line or a term loan. Separately, SBA's Made in America Loan Guarantee gives eligible small manufacturers a 90% guarantee through the International Trade Loan program. He said working capital is the part of a financing plan that gets cut most often, and it is the part companies run short of when plans change.

SBIC funds: a no can open a door

The moderator described Small Business Investment Companies, privately managed funds licensed by SBA that invest in U.S. small businesses with strategies from venture capital to loans. He said that when a fund says a company is not a fit, the company can ask who might be. Fund managers in this market often make introductions.

The Commercial Drone Alliance interviewed Chairman Carr.

How the Covered List works

Chairman Carr said the FCC does not decide what goes on the Covered List; national security agencies do, and the FCC carries it out. He said the December 2025 action on foreign-made drones affects new models: a drone model already authorized can still be made abroad, imported, and sold. He said the Department of War and the Department of Homeland Security decide waivers and have been granting them, with decisions in about 30 days, and that products meeting the Buy American standard (more than 65% made in the U.S.) also clear. He said billions of dollars have flowed into U.S. drone manufacturing since the action.

The grandfathering proceeding

He said the FCC is asking whether to end the continued import and sale of some already-authorized foreign drones, with swarming drones and large agricultural spraying drones as examples. Unlike waivers, that decision is the FCC's own.

What he asked companies to do

Be specific. He said general arguments that change is expensive and slow do not move the FCC. What helps is naming the exact component, how long it would take to move it, and whether a U.S. replacement exists today or will in a year or two. He said companies also need to bring their case to the Department of War, the Department of Homeland Security, and the National Security Council, because waivers are decided there.

Counter-drone and testing

He said Section 333 of the Communications Act, which bars jamming authorized communications, does not apply to the federal government, and that the FCC's July 2, 2026 rulings extend that protection to state, local, and tribal law enforcement acting under the SAFER SKIES Act and to contractors working for the federal government. A companion ruling explains when companies can test jamming and counter-drone systems. He said the FCC is also moving to broader, faster authorizations for testing at test ranges, and that many of these one-year forms of relief can be extended.

Spectrum coming for drones

He said the FCC will likely look to remove the restriction on airborne use in the 800 MHz band, which travels far and suits command and control for drones flying beyond line of sight. He also named a restriction that keeps low-cost automotive radar off drones as something the FCC should look at, and said the FCC wants to review drone applications faster with checklist-style criteria, as it now does for satellites.

1. Evidence of demand written in terms a banker can read: orders, awards, customers who will take a call, and commercial sales.
2. A clear picture of which tier of the supply chain the company is in, and which parts could be made in the U.S. or sourced from allies.
3. A check of suppliers against the official 1260H list and the FCC Covered List, done with the company's own counsel.
4. A LYNX profile, and a close watch on dronedominance.mil for each new competition, its volumes, and its supply chain rules.
5. For companies without their own factory: a conversation with Army Materiel Command about its depots making parts.
6. For foreign drone companies: a plan for where final assembly will take place, checked against the program's own supply chain framework.
7. Specific, documented requests to the FCC, the Department of War, and the Department of Homeland Security, rather than general complaints.
8. Introductions, asked for whenever a funder says no.

On Autonomy Runway, Financing lists these money sources side by side, Updates tracks the rule dates, and Events lists government events.

• Summit sessions: SBA event videos, September 24, 2026.
• FCC Chairman at the summit: DroneXL, September 24, 2026.
• Smaller War Plants Commission and the Made in America Loan Guarantee: SBA, August 25, 2026.
• 1260H list: Federal Register, FR Doc 2026-11571, June 10, 2026.
• Section 805 dates and component exception: Crowell & Moring.
• LYNX: U.S. Department of War, January 2026.
• MARC loan terms: NAGGL.
• OSC and PDW: Department of War release, July 31, 2026.
• Army depots and drone parts: Army Materiel Command, July 9 and August 5, 2026.
• FCC Section 333 rulings: FCC DA 26-654 and DA 26-655, July 2, 2026.
• Drone Dominance Program