Opinion
Monroe-Anderson: Many defense tech startup products may be completely useless
“Maybe my hottest take is that a lot of the defense tech, maybe the majority of defense tech products that are being put out right now by startups are not very effective and maybe even like completely useless.”
Opinion
Monroe-Anderson: Neros was only PBAS winner to meaningfully deliver
“We ended up getting selected. They selected two other companies as well but we were the only ones to really deliver in a meaningful way”
Opinion
GPS-reliant drone swarm demos fail completely under real battlefield conditions
“Intro, you know, 10, a hundred drones swarming together and going and hitting a target. It's all happening on ranges with GPS, which is not a real thing in the battlefield. And a lot of companies are demoing stuff that just does not actually hold up in realist…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Monroe-Anderson: Very few defense tech startups have deployed meaningful equipment in Ukraine
“And there's very few defense tech startups that have a meaningful amount of equipment deployed in Ukraine. Like you can just go down the list and see.”
Insight
Monroe-Anderson: Battlefield 3D printing fails to solve drone supply chain bottlenecks
“Generally factories are really efficient when they are large and centralized and three D printers can be very useful for adapting drones to Various mission sets, but you'd only be, like, the airframe or a payload adapter. What we're trying to solve for is the …”
Opinion
Monroe-Anderson: Modern conflict demands US factories producing millions of drones annually
“America should have the capability to have factories that can make millions of drones per year, because that's what modern conflict demands.”
Assertion Supported
Monroe-Anderson says 90% of Russian Shahed drones are intercepted midair
“Now that's really coming true, where, like, 90% of the DeepStrike Shawhead drones that Russia is using are getting taken out of the sky before they can even hit a target.”
Assertion Supported
Monroe-Anderson: China is supplying drone components to both Ukraine and Russia
“China is supplying drones and components to both sides. So to Ukraine and to Russia, and they have by far the strongest drone and just electronics industrial base.”
Disclosure
Monroe-Anderson: Neros boards, chips, motors, and magnets never touch China
“We've tried to go quite far, and we think further than anyone else, where, like, you can look at our boards, you can look at all of the chips that go onto our boards, those will not
Have ever touched China. Our motors are made outside of China. The material th…”
Assertion Supported
China completely dominates PCB precursor chemicals used in US defense systems
“Printed circuit boards, they use precursor materials. The manufacturing uses precursor materials that is completely dominated by China. So, even if you go to one of these board shops in America that, that specializes in, you know, ITAR, Exquisite, like, they c…”
Opinion
Monroe-Anderson: DJI Has by Far the Best Technology
“With DJI, like they just have by far the best technology.”
Insight
US drone manufacturing is industrialization, not reindustrialization, because it never existed
“We're not trying to re-industrialize, we're trying to industrialize something that never existed in America, pretty much. Like, electronics and drones specifically just never existed in America”
Disclosure
Monroe-Anderson: Neros aims to be the 'Toyota of defense manufacturing'
“I say we want to be the Toyota of defense manufacturing where instead of being like a current prime where we're very exquisite and siloed, we're very you know, we're making these very accessible systems and we're ubiquitous across allies.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Monroe-Anderson: Autonomous drones in Ukraine broke when facing battlefield edge conditions
“I think that's one of the things that we've seen, especially with systems that went over and failed. I think it was a lot of the systems that are in theory supposed to be easier to use or more autonomous, but then they, like, met these edge conditions that exi…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Monroe-Anderson: Intercepting jet-powered Shahed drones requires 400 km/h speeds
“So, 300 is actually a pretty good spot for taking out, like, typical Shawhead drones. To go after jet-powered Shawhead drones, we need to be closer to, like, 400 miles 400 kilometers an hour, So that would be kind of the ideal end state.”
Disclosure
Monroe-Anderson: Neros sized its facility to eventually build 1M drones annually
“Really we sized this facility to be able to do a million drones a year eventually.”
Disclosure
Neros Intends to Deploy Bandit Interceptors to Ukraine Before Year-End
“We intend to be deploying Bandit in Ukraine before the end of the year.”
Assertion Supported
Monroe-Anderson: Iranian Shaheds Destroyed Billions in Middle East Equipment and Infrastructure
“Shahhead drones, Iranian Shahhead drones have taken out billions of dollars of infrastructure and other weapon systems in the Middle East and you know, against US forces.”
Assertion Contradicted
Monroe-Anderson: China produces tens to hundreds of millions of drones annually
“China has been the biggest beneficiary because they've been supplying both sides of the war and probably making, I mean, tens of millions of drones per year easily, maybe in the hundreds of millions.”
Assertion Supported
Monroe-Anderson: DJI drones are the most common reconnaissance drones in Ukraine
“What DJI makes, which, you know, they make the best consumer drones in the world, but they also make the most commonly used reconnaissance drones for the battlefield. Like, Ukraine and Russia are using Mavic's, Matrice's, all these DJI products that are incred…”
What-if
Monroe-Anderson: Ukraine Would Be Far Worse Off Without Chinese Drone Components
“I mean, I think, like, it's a morally corrupt approach but although it would also be far worse for Ukraine if they didn't have access to Chinese components.”
Assertion Supported
Monroe-Anderson: Neros Was First with an FPV Drone on Blue UAS List
“We were the first company to have an FPV drone on the blue UAS list, meaning the Department of War could actually just purchase and use it without having to go through a bunch of crazy approvals.”
Opinion
Monroe-Anderson: China copied American manufacturing and built a better system
“China figured out how to do everything from America and then improved on it. They iterated really quickly and they made a better system”
Opinion
Monroe-Anderson: Ukrainian drone makers lack timelines for deep technical innovation
“I think this is an advantage we have compared to the situation that a lot of Ukrainian companies are in, where they're extremely good at the rapid iteration, but they don't have as much of an ability to pull back and do the long-term, like, really deep technic…”
