MY 4 FAVORITE DRONE COMPANIES

One of my top initiatives for the Growth Portfolio over the rest of the year is building out my 'Drone' bucket.

I’m building exposure across every layer of the drone stack including platforms, autonomy, sensors, counter-drone systems and the hardware underneath it all:

1.

$AeroVironment(AVAV)$ (the weapon layer)

AeroVironment is the expendable weapon end of the theme since it makes Switchblade drones which are the small, cheap "kamikaze" drones that launch, hit a target, and are gone. These get used up in combat so demand scales directly with how much modern warfare leans on attritable strikes. My exposure here is to drones being fired in volume, the purest "loitering munitions get consumed" bet with a ~$1.1B Switchblade backlog.

2.

$Kratos Defense & Security Solutions(KTOS)$ (the aircraft layer)

Kratos is the high end, big contract end of the theme since it makes attritable jet drones like the XQ-58 Valkyrie that fly alongside manned fighters as "loyal wingmen." Where AeroVironment is small, cheap and expendable, Kratos is large scale, high performance and tied to major procurement cycles. My exposure here is the premium platform layer, the multi-million-dollar systems and propulsion that ride big military budgets rather than volume munitions.

3.

$Ondas Holdings Inc.(ONDS)$ (the autonomy layer)

Ondas is my autonomy and drone-infrastructure exposure since it makes the systems that let drones fly and operate on their own plus tech to detect and stop enemy drones. Where AeroVironment and Kratos are platforms, Ondas is the autonomy and counter drone infrastructure layer so my exposure here is the bet on the "drones run themselves" future, the fastest growing and most speculative leg with management raising 2026 guidance to at least $375M on drone-in-a-box and counter-UAS deployments.

4.

$Mercury(MRCY)$ (the brains layer)

Mercury makes the embedded electronics that go inside drones (onboard AI processing, EO/IR payloads, electronic warfare) plus the counter-drone systems that detect and defeat hostile drones. The key difference is that it sells to many drone makers and primes so it wins regardless of which airframe comes out on top. My exposure here is the "picks and shovels" play across the whole industry with a counter drone hedge built in and it just posted record bookings of $348M (+74%) and a ~$1.6B backlog.