Fireside Chat with K9 Defense

An interview with a rising drone innovator!

Origin and Background

 I remember linking up with you randomly in a parking lot somewhere in Southern California. We talked shop, showed off our latest drone builds, chatted about aggressive expansion, concepts, and the current state of the drone industry. Where were you coming from that weekend?

Canine Defense Technologies (K9 Defense): I was on my way back from the El Segundo Defense Tech Hackathon, one of the best events I’ve ever attended. I connected with many mutuals from X, including you. It was amazing to meet fellow technical individuals. The event had the highest concentration of high-level technical talents I’ve ever seen in one small space.

Awesome bro. Can you share your journey into the UAV/Drone industry? What sparked your interest in drone technology?

K9 Defense: I love things that fly. I was into rocketry through middle school, but in high school, my dad suggested I build drones since my experiments were starting to get explosive and dangerous. I always wanted to get into drones. Inspired by Anduril Industries, I wanted to challenge myself to build a tactical drone from COTS parts, focusing on reducing acoustic signatures through prop design and testing. This led to our core product, Valor. Making online posts about Valor got attention from the DoD and servicemen from various branches. I graduated high school with a GED and, with my parents’ support, skipped college to focus on developing Valor.

Where’s the name K9 Defense come from, and how has the company’s mission aligned with your personal goals?

K9 Defense: The name reflects humanity’s historic dependence on animals, particularly canines, even in the modern age. K9 Defense Tech aims to build systems that form impactful bonds with users. My personal goal and the company mission are the same: bridging the U.S. defense tech hardware gap for Americans by Americans.

Creation Process

What is your typical process for designing a new flight controller from scratch?

K9 Defense: We don’t design new flight controllers from scratch. Instead, we collaborate with companies like ARK Electronics, who have optimized critical flight electronics. Trying to build every part of the drone from scratch without immense financial resources would kill the company. Working with good companies that fill our gaps is crucial.

Can you walk us through the stages of development for one of your tactical drones?

K9 Defense: Define the bare requirements, research existing solutions, draw up a basic build list, and build many prototypes. Iterative development is key to maximizing early failures, which is essential for hyper-optimization.

How do you approach the integration of new hardware components into your drone designs?

K9 Defense: We focus on extreme modularity, designing products that grow with the users. Future-proofing is baked in, making new hardware integration a normal function of the drone.

What are the key considerations you keep in mind when creating commercial off-the-shelf drones?

K9 Defense: Budget and scale are the main considerations. Off-the-shelf drone building is well documented and standardized. The edge in capabilities comes from applying novel solutions from other industries.

How do you ensure that the hardware you create is reliable and durable in various operational environments?

K9 Defense: Reliability comes down to design. We have an internal process for ruggedized design, minimizing gaps, making joints easy to seal, preventing galvanic corrosion, and using appropriate sealants. MIL-STD and IP ratings are also referenced.

Can you describe any early challenges you faced when you first started designing and building drones?

K9 Defense: I didn’t know enough about manufacturing and economics. Being a good designer and builder can be a handicap when scaling a company. Outsourcing to good companies, learning new manufacturing technologies, and doing a lot of DFM are crucial. I learned that good products are compromises of specs, manufacturing, demand, and cost.

Building Drones

What are the most critical components to focus on when building a high-performance drone?

K9 Defense: It depends on the definition of “high performance” (e.g., flight time, speed). Starting with documented builds that performed well in the desired area and iterating from there is a good approach.

Can you explain the importance of flight controllers in drone functionality and performance?

K9 Defense: The flight controller is like the cerebellum, and the flight computer is the frontal lobe. Advances in flight computers, with increasing processing power and decreasing footprints, will significantly impact drone operations.

How do you test and validate the performance of your drones before they are released to the market?

K9 Defense: We are actively developing validation metrics based on customer needs. Getting as many initial beta users as possible for third-party opinions is crucial. Our validation process will always iterate and adapt to new applications.

Open Source Drones

What motivated you to venture into creating open-source drones?

K9 Defense: I learned everything from the open-source community and want to give back. I aim to democratize certain areas of drone technology.

How do you balance innovation with accessibility when developing open-source drone hardware?

K9 Defense: Monetizing innovation slows it down, while making it accessible accelerates progress. Balancing this requires sacrifices, such as potential market cap or inadvertently helping a rival. We are open to taking such risks if it benefits the industry.

What are the potential benefits and challenges of open-source drones for the wider UAV community?

K9 Defense: The biggest challenge is the risk of foreign adversaries exploiting open-source projects, as seen in Ukraine. Responsible information sharing is crucial. Despite challenges, open architecture ensures users own the product and other companies can build on top of it, benefiting the industry.

Competition and Market

How does K9 Defense stay competitive in the rapidly evolving drone market?

K9 Defense: We make products that last and adapt.

What sets your drones apart from those of your competitors in terms of hardware and performance?

K9 Defense: Valor focuses on stealth, with a quieter operation and a compact frontal cross-section. Our stealth blade system masks its acoustic signature, allowing closer proximity to targets with less powerful sensors. DragonDrone is built around an SDR, making it unique in the EW domain.

How do you foresee the drone industry evolving in the next five years, and how is K9 Defense preparing for these changes?

K9 Defense: The West will face challenges importing drone components from Asia, and there will be a shift towards lethal systems. We are preparing by self-sanctioning supply chain disruptions and developing products based on Western lines. We are also prototyping and developing lethal systems.

Tactical Drones

What specific applications do your tactical drones cater to, and how do they differ from other drones on the market?

K9 Defense: Valor is a multi-mission stealth platform developed for SOCOM requirements but adaptable for various uses like civilian, military, and law enforcement. It offers stealth, ruggedness, and extreme modularity.

Can you share any success stories or use cases where your tactical drones have made a significant impact?

K9 Defense: Valor is not yet in production, but we have demos and beta testers showing promising progress. We expect to hear positive stories soon.

What unique features or capabilities do your tactical drones offer that are not commonly found in commercial drones?

K9 Defense: Our drones offer extreme modularity, allowing them to be adapted for various uses. They are built to last and adapt, unlike most commercial drones.

Innovation and Technology

How do you stay updated with the latest technological advancements in UAV hardware?

K9 Defense: Primarily through LinkedIn and X, where industry leaders are active. X provides the fastest updates.

Can you discuss any innovative technologies or methods you are currently exploring for future drone designs?

K9 Defense: We have a long list of technologies and prototypes, but I can’t discuss them yet.

How do you ensure that your drones remain adaptable to new technologies and changing market needs?

K9 Defense:We design drones to be software-defined and modular, allowing them to adapt to new technologies and user needs.

Regulatory and Ethical Considerations

What are the major regulatory challenges you face in the development and deployment of drones?

K9 Defense: Remote ID is a significant challenge. It’s an usurpation of privacy and disconnects from actual end-user needs. While it might be suitable for BVLOS operations, mandating it for all drones over 250 grams is problematic and unenforceable.

How do you address the ethical concerns associated with the use of tactical drones in various operations?

K9 Defense: Ethics is about deterrence. We need to accelerate lethal autonomous system development to maintain a position of deterrence against adversaries that disregard ethics. Building autonomous weapons is necessary to avoid being left vulnerable.

How does K9 Defense ensure compliance with international drone regulations and standards?

K9 Defense: We read and base our design requirements on documented compliance standards and procedures.

Personal Insights and Advice

What advice would you give to aspiring engineers and developers who want to enter the UAV/Drone industry?

K9 Defense: Start turning wrenches.

How do you handle setbacks or failures in your projects, and what lessons have you learned from them?

K9 Defense: The biggest lesson I learned, and one that helps me handle failure is that failure is inevitable. I try to fail as quickly as possible early on, embrace duct tape prototypes and crash and damage hardware as much as possible.

If something worked perfectly on the first try, you only learn one thing, that is that you’ve reached your limits on getting any better for that project. If something crashes and burns on the first try in a thousand different places, if you persevere enough, you learn a thousand different ways to improve.

There’s a catch: there are utter failures that represent something you should never do again, and there’s progressive failure, where you ultimately failed but left enough progress to build the next improved iteration on. I’m still learning and building a mental model in this.

Believing in this doesn’t mean it’s easy. How I handle failure that’s mentally devastating is by doing something else. I always have an unrelated project on the back burner as a mental fallback.