How Drone Programs Are Being Built for Scale and Longevity

In this video, Steve Warzala, President of Allient Defense, Chief Growth Officer, and Corporate Vice President, discusses our drone capabilities and covers the following topics: program strategy, supply chain resilience, system integration, market applications, production scaling, and long-term program support.

For more information on our drone capabilities, click here.

Can You Tell Us About Allient Defense and Your Role Within the Business?

Allient Defense focuses on delivering mission critical motion control and advanced lightweighting materials solutions for both ground vehicles and unmanned systems in the defense space. We support programs where performance, reliability, and long-term availability truly matter. Our goal is to increase operational efficiencies for the warfighter, providing them with mission overmatch in any tactical situation.

That includes propulsion systems, precision motion and integrated control technologies that become core to the platform itself. We consider ourselves large enough to be credible as an organization, while still small enough to be nimble.

In my role as president of Allient Defense and Chief Growth Officer of Allient, I'm responsible for shaping our growth strategy in the defense and unmanned markets. That means aligning engineering, operations, and customer engagement around long-term programs.

I spent a lot of time working with the TU’s (technical units) early in their development cycles, making sure we're not just solving a technical challenge, but supporting the full life cycles of the platforms. It's about connecting innovation with scalability and sustained performance.

How Are Changes in Global Supply Chains Affecting How Drone OEMs Think About Where Critical Technologies Are Designed and Manufactured?

Supply chain resilience has become a strategic issue. It's not just an operational one anymore. Drone OEMs are thinking much more carefully about where their critical technologies are designed, built and supported.

Geopolitical uncertainty, and especially with President Trump's new drone dominance initiative, have certainly increased the traceability requirements and are all driving a shift toward domestic sourcing, especially for defense and security applications. It's no longer enough to have the best components on paper, but OEMs want confidence that the supply will be stable, compliant and secure over the life of the program.

Manufacturing locations are now directly tied into the risk management of US based design and production, providing viability, control and alignment within the regulatory framework, which has become a significant differentiator in this defense market.

Why Do Manufacturing Locations Matter More to OEMs Now?

There again, you point back to what the expectation or potential conflicts going on in the future with what we're seeing with Ukraine and the Russia conflict. Without question, the domestic manufacture rate, speed of play has always been one of the biggest factors with this new administration, getting to market quickly, getting product out the door fast, and local supply chains have been one of the biggest factors talking about getting product out to the defense space.

What Do You Think the Supply Chain Risks Are?

I think when you look at supply chain in general, what we saw during Covid certainly became a factor. Long lead times and getting offshore products. When you look at the potential to move everything onshore, it allows speed of play, it allows direct access back to the customers as quickly as possible.

I think that's one of the biggest aspects, into the drone dominance initiative, speed is a massive factor. We cannot use our old system and old ways of doing things because it will just put us behind. And with what's coming up, we have to rebuild our military. And the only way to do that is to go back to local supply chains and improve initiatives that will help efficiencies, like getting product out the door as quickly as possible.

As The Drone Market Matures, What Shifts Are You Seeing in How OEMs Plan for Long-Term Programs and Platform Life Cycles?

I think the biggest shift is moving from a prototype mindset to a life cycle mindset. Early in the market, speed to proof of concept was the priority. So now we're seeing OEMs plan for multi-year programs with the five production ramps and sustainment strategies.

The US government expects to deliver tens of thousands of US capable drone platforms in 2026 and hundreds of thousands of platforms in 2027. So that means thinking about scalability, repeatability, and long-term availability from day one. Components have to be consistent across units. Supply chains need to support production volume, and performance has to hold up over thousands of operational hours.

It can't just be a testing cycle. We know when you're out in the battlefield that failure cannot happen. It is not an option. And therefore, that's where we come into play to ensure we offer long-term strategies with the next generation of products.

Which Emerging Drone Applications or Platform Types Are Having the Biggest Influence on Where the Industry Is Heading?

Defense and security applications are having a significant influence, particularly in areas like intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, force protection, and counter unmanned aircraft systems. These missions demand high reliability and longer endurance, especially as defending soft targets have become much more serious.

We're seeing this on both our propulsion and advanced lightweight materials market. The ability to respond quickly is absolutely critical. We're also seeing growth in drone propulsion and ground vehicle platforms to increase operational efficiency and extend operational reach, which includes ranges and allowing warfighters to carry heavier payloads and use cases that push propulsion systems harder and require more efficient power management systems.

Across the board, platforms that require longer flight times, high reliability, and operation in contested or complex environments are setting the standard. The expectations are rising, and that's shaping how systems are designed from the ground up.

Why Does Allient Want to Support the Drone OEMs In Early Development?

Our goal is to engage the OEM early in the concept and design phases, not just to work with the prototype side, but to make sure what's being designed can actually scale in production. That includes the engineering collaboration and system integration side.

And that means helping design the production road mapping, supply chain visibility, and sustain program support. Our goal is to be aligned with the OEMs roadmap and not just on the next order.

What Differentiates Allient When Drone OEMs Are Evaluating Partners for Mission-Critical Programs?

I think a few things stand out. First, US based design and manufacturing, which is increasingly important for compliance, security and risk mitigation. Second, scale and experience. Allient produces 5 million motors a year and we have over 1.2 million square feet of manufacturing space in order to support large OEMs in performance, which is non-negotiable.

That background carries over directly into unmanned systems as well. Finally, we approach relationships as long-term partnerships. We're not just supplying a component. We're investing in the success of the platform over its lifecycle. When a system is mission critical, the partner behind it needs to be equally committed to its performance, stability, and long-term support.

And as I've said many times, and will continue to say, we're a great partner because Allient is large enough to be credible, while being small enough to be nimble.

How Do You See AI Changing the Defense Market Space?

I think as we get into the AI space, even more in the defense space, you're having battles being fought so different in the battlefield than you used to, that in milliseconds it can process so much lines of data, code, etc. that provide to the warfighter in the field a totally different battlefield advantage than it used to.

And I listened to a Lieutenant Colonel speak a long time ago about providing the warfighter with the utmost tactical advantage and never putting them in a fair fight. And I took that to heart, that saying, wow, that's just an unbelievable concept I would never think of.

In this case, AI can leverage that technology to allow the warfighter to have just the utmost and timely information that will allow them to be that much more effective on the battlefield.

What Has Your Experience at Allient Been Like?

I've been with the company 16 years now. It's hard to believe it's been 16 years already, but it's flown by. I think the team that we've built here at Allient, and I say this genuinely, I really enjoy coming to work every single day.

And not just because we're a company that does motion control products. What does that mean? But we really do cool things behind the scenes, like the things you see in the movies. We get to build and work with every single day, whether it's in the medical field where we're saving people’s lives, or that’s in the defense field where we're still saving people's lives, by giving them the opportunity to come home safely.

Now, what we do really is some of the coolest stuff that I've ever been a part of.