Show Notes
Olaf Hichwa joins the podcast to break down the reality of modern drone warfare, FPVs, and why small drones now drive the majority of battlefield casualties.
Drawing on direct exposure to Ukraine and deep experience building real systems, Olaf explains why drone-on-drone combat, cost-imposing weapons, and industrial-scale manufacturing matter more than hype around autonomy or directed energy.Olaf is the co-founder and CTO of Neros Technologies.
Olaf on X Neros Technologies Website
We discuss why China’s component ecosystem still outpaces the West, how U.S. drone dominance efforts are evolving, and what actually works in contested EW environments.
The conversation also digs into ITAR, exportability, component-level industrial base gaps, and why deterrence depends on building weapons that actually function at scale.This is a grounded, unfiltered look at where drone warfare is headed and what the defense tech ecosystem keeps getting wrong.
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Derek McBride, Portfolio Manager in the Autonomous Warfare portfolio at the Department of War Innovation Unit (DIU), joins the show to discuss how the Pentagon is approaching drones, autonomy, and the defense industrial base.
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