An executive order unveiled by the White House in late July aims to “unleash” the U.S. drone industry. The initiative includes billions in federal investments to accelerate the deployment of unmanned systems across defense, homeland security, and critical infrastructure. As the order makes clear, drones and other unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are no longer a nascent sector; they are now platforms of power.

Just days earlier, a report from DroneLife confirmed what many in the industry had only heard anecdotally: a new generation of drone tech companies are finally leveraging procurement reform to apply directly for contracts, bypassing slow-moving, traditionally bureaucratic processes. The Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU)—the outfit tasked with fast-tracking commercial technology

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