Neros says its new 250,000-square-foot factory is on track for 130,000 drones a year by December and a million a year by around 2028.
Olaf Hichwa, Neros co-founder and CTO, says Neros builds more drones in a week than any other American drone company builds in a month.
Hichwa argues that only another drone can stop a drone, which is why Neros is launching Archer AI and developing the Bandit interceptor.
Neros races to build a million American drones a year
Neros is betting that drones are the defining weapon of this generation and that the US needs million-drone factories to keep pace with China. Winning means building for real users, owning key parts like radios, and holding costs low enough for a profitable business at scale. Hichwa ties this to deterrence, since a return to building physical things is his answer to China's lead.
Takeaways
Neros is scaling toward a million drones yearly. The new 250,000 square foot factory is on track for a 130,000 drones a year run rate by December and a million around 2028. An Archer leaves the line every two minutes, and weekly output beats any other American drone maker's monthly output.
Drones now dominate casualties in Ukraine. Hichwa cites about 70 percent of casualties from drones, a figure Zelensky is quoting higher. Chinese suppliers sell to both Russia and Ukraine, and Russia often gets newer technology, so Western makers need many million-drone factories to compete.
Build for users in the field, not demos. Co-founder Soren asked Ukrainian operators for feedback on the first Archer over Twitter, and the early team carried about 30 drones to Ukraine. Reality strips away requirements, so Neros deletes parts first, and thousand-unit AI swarms do not survive contact.
Vertical integration drives speed and cost. Neros has built 37,000 Archers at about forty-five minutes each, against roughly twelve hours for most competitors, per Morse. Suppliers quoted $2,000 to $5,000 for a radio Neros wanted at $50, so it makes its own radio and flight computer.
Autonomy and interceptors come next. Archer AI uses computer vision to fly into a target after comms or GPS are lost. Bandit, an interceptor, has passed 250 kilometers per hour as a prototype, because the only thing that can stop a drone is another drone.
China's electronics ecosystem is the benchmark. Hichwa says DJI holds over 70 percent of the consumer drone market, and those purchases fund China's military base. He saw factories making 2,000 Russian kamikaze drones a day, and engineers there get boards in one day. The US needs a similar ecosystem.
Deterrence over Taiwan is fading fast. America still has credible deterrence against China, Hichwa says, but it is going away quickly. His answer is a return to building physical things, and at $2,000 a drone, a million units is $2bn, so profit is essential.
Manufacturing lessons at volume
Move from hand soldering to connectors so assembly is fast and repeatable.
Mistake-proof every step once volume is high.
Expect chip supply problems to appear at five or ten thousand units a month.
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On this episode 2
Show 1
Design around TSMC lead times, sometimes with two different boards for the same function.
No company can be fully vertically integrated, and Neros does not design its own screws.