The Drone Ultimatum

Derek McBride, Portfolio Manager in the Autonomous Warfare portfolio at the Department of War Innovation Unit (DIU), joins the show to discuss how the Pentagon is approaching drones, autonomy, and the defense industrial base.

Derek on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/derekmcbride/

DIU Website: https://www.diu.mil/

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They break down DIU’s role in defense acquisition, the $1.1 billion Drone Dominance program, and how challenge-based acquisition is being used to identify systems that work—and can actually be manufactured at scale.

The conversation covers FPV training, resilient drone supply chains, U.S. manufacturing, counter-UAS systems, interceptors, electronic warfare, autonomy, swarms, private capital in defense, and the economics of modern drone warfare.

Josh Giegel is the Founder and CEO of Gambit AI, an autonomous systems software company building technology to coordinate teams of robots.

Before founding Gambit, Josh worked at SpaceX on the Merlin 1D engine and co-founded Hyperloop Technologies, later Virgin Hyperloop.

Ben Richardson, Gambit’s Chief Commercial Officer, brings a military and defense innovation background to the company.

Josh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-giegel/

Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-richardson-92029b5/

Gambit: https://www.gambit.us/

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In this episode of The Drone Ultimatum, Josh and Ben explain why the growing number of autonomous platforms creates a new problem: coordinating them. Rather than building another drone, Gambit is developing the orchestration layer that allows different autonomous systems, payloads, and platforms to work together toward a common objective.

The conversation covers one-to-many control, AI-enabled electronic warfare, autonomous kill-chain workflows, ISR optimization, drone motherships, and the integration of aerial, ground, and maritime autonomous systems.

Josh and Ben also discuss why future battlefields could increasingly become “robot engagement zones” where autonomous systems operate in areas too dangerous for humans.

They also get into the business of building a defense startup: selling pure software to the government, working with traditional primes instead of treating them as competitors, surviving long procurement cycles, managing burn, and turning demonstrations into actual contracts.

Josh also reflects on his path from SpaceX to Virgin Hyperloop to Gambit, what he learned scaling a company to hundreds of employees, and why building a software-focused defense company is a very different proposition from developing capital-intensive hardware.

Brian Taylor is the Founder & CEO of Lux Aeterna, a startup developing the world's first fully reusable satellite for high-tempo, reliable, and flexible timelines in orbit.

Brian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianjtaylor/

Lux Aeterna: https://www.luxaeterna.com/

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Our website: https://www.thedroneultimatum.com/Brian joins Steve to discuss why falling launch costs are changing the economics of space and why he believes the next step is moving beyond satellites designed around attrition. He explains Lux Aeterna’s approach to operating fleets of reusable spacecraft and how bringing vehicles back creates new possibilities for rapid iteration, payload delivery, hypersonics, and in-space manufacturing.

They also discuss the role SpaceX played in reshaping the space industry, why Brian believes dual-use space companies should often start with defense customers, and how government R&D funding can help early-stage hardware companies establish flight heritage before expanding commercially.

The conversation moves into Brian’s experience as a solo founder, including how he structures his leadership team, hires experienced aerospace engineers, and thinks about fundraising. Brian also explains why raising money is not the same as winning and why founders should focus on investors who genuinely align with their worldview rather than trying to convince everyone.

They close with lessons from hardware development, live demos, failure investigations, and why Lux Aeterna actively looks for engineers who have already experienced the full lifecycle of putting hardware and software into space.

Read the Global Drone Threat Report (2026): https://dronesec.com/resources/d479e340-f78f-11f0-ab58-9f

Listen to our first podcast with Mike: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2utl1hG9Fc

Mike Monnik, founder and CEO of DroneSec, joins The Drone Ultimatum to explain what his team is seeing across the global drone threat landscape—from fiber-optic FPVs and jet-powered attack drones to maritime systems, humanoid robots, and drone-enabled gray-zone operations.

DroneSec tracks how militaries, terrorist organizations, cartels, and other actors use drones, along with the tactics and countermeasures developing around them. Mike explains why that intelligence matters when a tactic that works today may look completely different a year from now.

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Bohdan Volyanyuk is the co-founder and COO of Autonomous Cyber, a company building autonomous capabilities for offensive cyber operations.

Bohdan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bohdanvolyanyuk/

Autonomous Cyber: https://www.acyber.com/

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Bohdan joins the show to explain how AI is changing the cyber kill chain, from discovering vulnerabilities to weaponizing exploits and conducting operations. He argues that cyber should be treated as a persistent domain of conflict rather than something reserved for a small number of exquisite, highly planned operations.

The conversation also covers the similarities between autonomous cyber and autonomous weapons, the offense-defense cycle in cyberspace, Stuxnet, the challenges of selling cyber capabilities to the Department of Defense, startup fundraising, the current tech investment environment, and how cyber operations could shape a future conflict with China.

Bohdan previously served five years in the U.S. Army infantry, including deployments to Iraq and Syria, before attending MIT, where he met his co-founder and started Autonomous Cyber.