A global defense revolution is underway based on swarms of autonomous, unmanned, AI- and battery-powered drone systems. Last month President Donald Trump signed the “Unleashing American Drone Dominance” executive order, and on July 10, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth began to operationalize efforts to bolster domestic drone technology and manufacturing.
Unfortunately for the U.S. and the West, this entire revolution rests on a single point of failure: Nearly every autonomous system being deployed today is powered by batteries dependent on Chinese-controlled supply chains. If America cannot source and manufacture the batteries that power its drones and autonomous systems, its defense superiority is at risk.
