Two California-based startups took the top spots in the latest phase of the Drone Dominance competition, a Pentagon effort to find companies that can produce high-quality, low-cost commercial drones at scale.
According to the competition’s leaderboard, Neros Technologies scored highest in the confined-environment testing category. Perennial Autonomy claimed the top spot in “deep-strike” testing, in which operators launched attacks beyond the range of enemy defenses.
The Pentagon uses the companies’ rankings to determine how many drones to buy, meaning higher-scoring companies receive larger orders. In total, the department ordered 14,000 drones from Neros — which also ranked third in deep-strike testing — and 8,000 from Perennial.
Neros, founded by competitive drone racers in 2023, identified its winning design as the Archer AI drone. The company said the 10-inch model was “built with Terminal Guidance functionality that allows the drone to fly itself to an operator-selected target, a critical feature in the comms-denied environments military operators face today.”
In a statement, Soren Monroe-Anderson, Neros’ chief executive and co-founder, called the Archer “highly modular and easily adapted to end-user needs.”
“Pairing real warfighter feedback with our deep engineering talent is the reason Neros is the only manufacturer to have placed in the top three across two fundamentally different mission sets — deep strike and close-quarters battle — with the same drone platform,” he said.
The Defense Department launched Drone Dominance in December 2025, with plans to invest $1 billion directly into the domestic drone market and build up the military’s supply of commercial drones.
Since then, the Pentagon has completed one-and-a-half phases, known as “Gauntlets,” along with three operational tests. Neros has ranked second, third and first in those competitions, earning the company roughly $100 million in orders.
Perennial said its design was “tested across rigorous find-fix-finish objectives at various long-range beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) distances” and flown by operators during day and night missions.
“The systems proved their operational reliability under heavily contested conditions, to deliver precise, autonomous engagement when it counted,” the company said in a press release.
Earlier this year, the Defense Department awarded Perennial a $500 million contract through Joint Interagency Task Force 401, or JIATF-401, which is responsible for researching, testing and procuring counter-drone technology for the department.
The company was founded in 2023 by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and developed the Merops interceptor for Ukrainian forces to counter Russia’s one-way attack drones.
Beginning in October, the Drone Dominance competition will enter Gauntlet 2.5, in which officials will test bomber platforms. The third phase is expected to begin next spring, with the competition scheduled to conclude next fall.
Daniel Terrill is a contributor to Military Times. He’s been reporting on military issues, the gun industry, and the outdoors for nearly two decades. Although writing is his passion, he’s been a Marine, police officer, and, perhaps the most dangerous job of his career, a substitute teacher.
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