Swarmer's valuation is not that stretched given its Ratel acquisition, the main reason to own it. Ratel's unmanned ground robots are monsters, and people who have seen them on the front lines were very impressed. x.com 

Swarmer is positioned for the Pentagon's push into cheap, autonomous drone swarms and domestic drone supply chains, with a $2.86M Department of Defense contract to arm its SkyKnight platform serving as official military validation. Jim Cramer named it a prime military drone pick on Mad Money, sending shares up nearly 38%. Revenue is minimal, but analysts project 79% annual growth over three years as defense contracts roll out, and a small float fuels squeeze-style rallies. x.com 

Drone stocks fell in 2026 even as backlogs hit records: Ukraine turned aircraft into ammunition, and the Pentagon's 2027 request holds nearly $75B for drones and counter-drone. AeroVironment's reordered loitering munitions and Kratos's jet drones are highest conviction. Counter-drone names Ondas, Axon, Motorola Solutions, Safe Pro, DroneShield and Rheinmetall gain as threats grow, Unusual Machines from Chinese-parts bans. Primes bury drone exposure; pure plays may not convert backlog. x.com  … Show more

Red Cat Holdings is a small cap with the fundamentals to back a massive run. Its Black Widow drones are a US Army program of record, with NATO contracts and a Ukraine partnership. Q1 2026 revenue rose 849% year on year, full-year guidance is $150-180 million, and production infrastructure is already built to support $1 billion in annual revenue. x.com 

Defense money is rotating into next-generation drone makers such as AeroVironment and Red Cat, not just legacy plays like Lockheed's F-35, after NATO members pledged 5% of GDP to defense, roughly a second U.S. military budget. x.com 

Ondas Holdings' valuation is hard to justify, and its long-term risk/reward looks less favorable than AeroVironment or Kratos. Per @rzayev7895's read of the earnings, growth comes from acquisitions rather than organically, share count rose 200-300%, market cap roughly quadrupled, cash comes from stock sales, and most backlog arrived with acquired companies. Ondas is more than drones, with critical private networks, but that does not change the valuation view. x.com  x.com  x.com 

Kratos keeps winning orders because it undercuts defense primes like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon by mass-producing low-cost, rapidly built systems. In early September it won a $20M+ satellite-communications gateway and antenna contract from an Asian defense customer, plus a roughly $35M award for hypersonic, counter-drone and air-defense hardware. Its Spartan engines will power Boeing's JDAM-LR munitions, with mass production from 2027. Q2 revenue rose over 30%, and backlog is $2.08B. x.com 

Drone makers AeroVironment, Kratos and Ondas look set for another strong run after the Trump administration imposed a 100% tariff on foreign-made drones, per @unusual_whales citing the NYT. Defense names including Lockheed Martin, RTX and General Dynamics are easy buys now ahead of a golden era in 2027-2028. As @fundmyfund notes, 2026 has been awful for many of these stocks, but long-term charts show big bases that can fuel powerful moves, and defense funding should arrive in coming weeks. x.com  … Show more

Palladyne AI's SwarmOS can become the Pentagon's universal adapter for drones, with an asset-light license model that scales with military demand. It charges about 10% of drone hardware cost per unit, with no annual fees, so heavy drone use in modern conflicts gives strong profit leverage. Its platform-agnostic stack lets drones from different makers form swarms in GPS-denied settings, and its IQ 2.0 industrial autonomy software won first commercial traction in Q1 in painting and coating. x.com 

AVEX is taking off because it meets irreplaceable defense demand for low-cost, expendable kamikaze drones. The Russia-Ukraine war shows masses of cheap drones outpacing costly missiles and jets, and its modular, 3D-printed one-way attack drone can be mass-produced cheaply, fitting the Pentagon's Replicator push for swarming systems. It held $356.6M of funded backlog in late March, 93% due to become 2026 revenue, with 88% of revenue from the US government. As a new IPO, it has no trapped holders. … Show more