Billions of dollars are at stake in this battle. The Pentagon is preparing to spend $9.4 billion on aerial combat drones in fiscal year 2026 as part of its larger $13.4 billion investment in autonomous systems. Furthermore, the Air Force is seeking $789.4 million for research and development of autonomous "loyal wingmen" drones that can fly and fight alongside crewed combat aircraft or carry out missions alone. The Department of Defense also aims to invest $3.1 billion in counter-drone technology.
From stealth mode to center stage, Mach Industries is bringing AI into one of the world's most complex and controversial sectors: defense. At TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, Ethan Thornton, CEO and founder of Mach Industries, steps onto the AI Stage to share what it takes to build in high-stakes environments where speed and autonomy matter most - and why next-gen infrastructure starts with rethinking the fundamentals.
We believe with a high level of confidence that FDN3 is part of a wider abusive infrastructure composed of two other Ukrainian networks, VAIZ-AS ( AS61432) and ERISHENNYA-ASN ( AS210950), and a Seychelles-based autonomous system named TK-NET ( AS210848). Those were all allocated in August 2021 and often exchange IPv4 prefixes with one another to evade blocklisting and continue hosting abusive activities.
The integration of generative artificial intelligence and machine learning into robotic surgical systems like Da Vinci is advancing towards fully autonomous surgical robots capable of performing procedures independently.
"What that enables is in that same way Gemini can produce text, write poetry, just summarize an article, you can also write code, and you can also generate images. It also can generate robot actions."
ATMOS is enhancing Europe's rapid response capabilities through its partnership with ARX Robotics, integrating orbital re-entry logistics and unmanned ground systems for disaster relief.