Electro Optic Systems' counter-drone business gets a massive boost from an A$700m contract for nationwide counter-drone defense. x.com
CK Capital
Defense/Space/Tech/Photonics Investor, Co-Owner of CV Research
Electro Optic Systems' half-year report shows counter-drone and directed-energy demand turning into revenue. Revenue rose 283% to $168.8 million, underlying EBITDA swung to a $21.6 million profit, and the order book hit a record $846 million. Full-year guidance is $360-400 million including MARSS, versus prior core-only guidance of $280-300 million. Recent orders include about $175 million for Slinger. Million-dollar interceptors cannot defend against thousand-dollar drone swarms. x.com x.com
Electro Optic Systems' integrated defenses meet nations' need to counter low-cost drones without relying on costly interceptors. Its £370 million nationwide Kuwait contract uses MARSS' NiDAR to connect sensors and effectors in a scalable network. EOS CEO Andreas Schwer says a deployment of this scale shows where the market is heading; Europe is next in view. x.com
Electro Optic Systems is accumulating meaningful defense and space opportunities. It has MoUs for Czech vehicle systems and Indian high-energy lasers, was selected for the US Space Force's satellite-tracking reserve, and has an A$700m Kuwait counter-drone contract that could drive over 80% of revenue in 12–24 months. x.com
Third-party sensors and hard-kill effectors make EOS's A$700m Kuwait contract less valuable than proprietary RWS or laser sales. MARSS gross margins already trail EOS's 50%, so the contract cannot earn the same revenue multiple; it is marginally profitable with an initial working-capital drag. EOS remains attractive for its vertical integration, but becoming a low-margin defense prime is a concern. Its only value is that it might open Gulf opportunities for EOS to supply its own RWS or lasers. … Show more
Electro Optic Systems trades at about 2x backlog versus about 28x for nLight, despite growing faster at higher margins. Q1 cash receipts rose 220% to A$72.6M versus nLight's 55% revenue growth, gross margin is 63% versus 33%, and its A$726M backlog, 60-80% expected to convert in 2026-27, is 4.5x larger. After buying MARSS it owns the full counter-drone kill chain, its ITAR-free lasers are winning exports, and management guides to first profit in 2026. The chart is near a breakout above $9.60. … Show more
Electro Optic Systems looks set to be huge in the Middle East as drone defense becomes a pressing need in areas Iran can reach. Per the Washington Post, US soldiers who survived an Iranian drone strike in Kuwait said commanders ignored warnings that the base lacked adequate drone defenses. US bases there will probably buy US-made lasers, however. x.com
Sovereign equity joint ventures turn the order books of AST SpaceMobile and Electro Optic Systems into structural demand with cheap growth capital, and the market has not fully priced it. AST and Rakuten's equal JV won Japan's J-LEO tender, with Tokyo committing ¥150B, about $922M, over three years. EOS's 50/50 UAE laser-weapon JV with Gen5 brings $40M and potential minimum orders of $250M and $290M, atop a firm $124M Slinger order. Other mid-sized powers should copy the template. x.com
Non-ITAR defense suppliers such as Electro Optic Systems, BAE Systems, Theon and Rheinmetall are an overlooked source of alpha as Europe, Asia and the Middle East shift defense spending away from US ITAR-controlled equipment. That shift comes with huge spending, yet US-based investors misunderstand it and wrongly call defense tech dead. Eurosatory confirmed the view, and the big alpha is not in drone builders. x.com x.com x.com
Electro Optic Systems is the best public stock for the rising importance of space warfare, a view matched by first-hand observation of NATO's Aurora exercise in Sweden as a reserve officer. As @PhotonBull argues, modern war runs on satellites for GPS, drone datalinks and over-the-horizon ISR, and whoever controls the orbital layer wins the surface war by default. x.com x.com
LightPath's large drone-camera optics order validates its ability to scale production for military thermal imaging. An unnamed key defense customer ordered over 50,000 optical assemblies amid accelerating U.S. drone procurement; assemblies grew from 23% of FY2025 revenue to 44% in FY2026. x.com
AeroVironment is selling off like a penny stock even though it just booked about half a billion dollars of counter-drone business, a reaction that looks absurd. x.com