Yep was very over sold .
This Gauntlet competition runs from mid February to Mid March I think ...after which the DOW is supposed to allocate contracts .
Its essential that ONDS wins some of those contracts IMHO .
So high risk trade
Good luck
Kiwi
From Gemini
Drone Program via @AmericanRobotic 's partnership with W S Darley & Co.
The Gauntlet is the initial operational evaluation phase of the U.S. War Department’s Drone Dominance Program (DDP), a $1.1 billion initiative aimed at rapidly fielding hundreds of thousands of low-cost, one-way attack drones by 2027.
The Wasp drone, developed by Ondas Holdings (parent company of American Robotics), was selected to compete in Phase I through a strategic partnership with W.S. Darley & Co..
Competition Details
Event Timeline: Evaluations are scheduled to begin February 18, 2026, at Fort Benning, Georgia (home to Lawson Army Airfield), and will conclude in early March.
Participant Field: 25 manufacturers were selected for Phase I to demonstrate their systems.
Evaluation Format: Military operators will fly the vendor systems through various mission scenarios to assess technical performance, autonomy levels, and manufacturability.
Prototype Orders: At the conclusion of the Gauntlet, the War Department plans to award approximately $150 million in prototype delivery orders.
Scaling Requirements: Winning vendors must be able to deliver 30,000 production-ready units at an average cost of $5,000 per unit within five months of receiving orders.
Program Objectives
The DDP is designed as a "process race" to bypass traditional bureaucratic delays and establish a domestic industrial base for lethal small drones. The long-term goal is to reduce unit costs to as low as $2,300 as production scales to 340,000 units by 2027.
Would you like more information on the specific performance requirements the Wasp must meet during the Fort Benning trials?
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The Gauntlet Phase I at Fort Benning focuses on scoring the Wasp and other competing systems across two primary combat-simulated missions. To advance, American Robotics and W.S. Darley & Co. must demonstrate that the Wasp can meet the following performance and production benchmarks:
1. Mission Performance Trials
The primary evaluation consists of two specific strike scenarios carried out with a minimum 2 kg dummy payload:
Open Territory Strike: A 10.0 km flight and strike mission across open terrain.
Simulated Urban Strike: A 1.0 km flight and strike within a complex, simulated urban environment.
2. System Capabilities & Requirements
Autonomy: While military operators will fly the systems, the competition emphasizes "overall system performance at cost," including ease of use and the effectiveness of autonomous flight software.
Operational Resilience: The Wasp is designed as a "mass-affordable" attritable system, meaning it must be cost-effective enough to be lost in combat while maintaining NDAA compliance and NATO interoperability.
Future Challenges: Vendors that pass Phase I will face significantly increased difficulty in subsequent "Gauntlets," including Counter-UAS (C-UAS) challenges and GPS-denied environments.
3. Manufacturing & Scale Benchmarks
The "process race" aspect of the competition requires participating vendors to prove they can scale rapidly:
Unit Cost: Vendors must initially meet a price point of approximately $5,000 per unit for Phase I, with a goal of dropping to $2,300 per unit by Phase IV.
Production Surge: American Robotics has indicated that through its manufacturing partner, Kitron, it can scale to produce 20,000 units per month within six months of receiving an order.
Delivery Speed: Winning vendors from the first Gauntlet must deliver a total of 30,000 production-ready units by July 2026.
Would you like to see the full list of 25 companies currently competing against the Wasp in the Gauntlet?
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As of early February 2026, the War Department has officially invited the following 25 companies to participate in Gauntlet I at Fort Benning. These vendors represent a mix of established defense contractors, specialized drone startups, and international technology partners.
The full list of competitors invited to Phase I of the Drone Dominance Program is as follows:
ANNO.AI, INC.
ASCENT AEROSYSTEMS INC.
AUTERION GOVERNMENT SOLUTIONS INC.
DZYNE TECHNOLOGIES, LLC.
EWING AEROSPACE LLC.
FARAGE PRECISION, LLC.
FIRESTORM LABS, INC.
GENERAL CHERRY CORP.
GREENSIGHT INC.
GRIFFON AEROSPACE, INC.
HALO AERONAUTICS, LLC.
KRATOS SRE, INC.
MODALAI, INC.
NAPATREE TECHNOLOGY LLC.
NEROS, INC.
NOKTURNAL AI (also cited as OKSI VENTURES, INC.)
PALADIN DEFENSE SERVICES LLC.
PERFORMANCE DRONE WORKS LLC.
RESPONSIBLY LTD.
SWARM DEFENSE TECHNOLOGIES, LLC.
TEAL DRONES INC.
UKRAINIAN DEFENSE DRONES TECH CORP.
VECTOR DEFENSE, INC.
W S DARLEY & CO. (Partner for the American Robotics Wasp)
XTEND REALITY INC.
Strategic Competitor Highlights
Established Players: Companies like Kratos SRE and Griffon Aerospace bring long histories in tactical UAS and target systems.
Software Specialists: Auterion and ModalAI are recognized for their advanced flight-computer and autonomy stacks, which are critical for the mission requirements.
International Partners: The inclusion of Ukrainian Defense Drones Tech Corp. reflects the program's goal to integrate battlefield-proven technology from active conflict zones.
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