两家总部位于加利福尼亚的初创公司在“无人机主导权”竞赛的最新阶段中拔得头筹。这项五角大楼计划旨在寻找能够大规模生产高质量、低成本商用无人机的企业。
Two California-based startups took the top spots in the latest phase of the Drone Dominance competition, a Pentagon effort to find companies that can produce high-quality, low-cost commercial drones at scale.
根据竞赛排行榜，Neros Technologies在封闭环境测试类别中得分最高。Perennial Autonomy则在“纵深打击”测试中夺得头名，该测试要求操作员对敌方防御范围之外的目标发动攻击。
According to the competition’s leaderboard, Neros Technologies scored highest in the confined-environment testing category. Perennial Autonomy claimed the top spot in “deep-strike” testing, in which operators launched attacks beyond the range of enemy defenses.
五角大楼依据这些公司的排名来决定采购无人机的数量，这意味着得分越高的公司获得的订单越大。总体而言，国防部向Neros订购了14000架无人机——该公司在纵深打击测试中也位列第三——并向Perennial订购了8000架。
The Pentagon uses the companies’ rankings to determine how many drones to buy, meaning higher-scoring companies receive larger orders. In total, the department ordered 14,000 drones from Neros — which also ranked third in deep-strike testing — and 8,000 from Perennial.
Neros由竞技无人机飞手于2023年创立，其获胜设计被确定为Archer AI无人机。该公司表示，这款10英寸机型“内置末段制导功能，使无人机能够自主飞向操作员选定的目标，这在当今军事操作人员面临的通信拒止环境中是一项关键能力”。
Neros, founded by competitive drone racers in 2023, identified its winning design as the Archer AI drone. The company said the 10-inch model was “built with Terminal Guidance functionality that allows the drone to fly itself to an operator-selected target, a critical feature in the comms-denied environments military operators face today.”
Neros首席执行官兼联合创始人索伦·门罗-安德森在一份声明中称，Archer“高度模块化，能够轻松适配终端用户需求”。他说：“将真实作战人员的反馈与我们深厚的工程人才相结合，正是Neros成为唯一一家以同一无人机平台在两种根本不同的任务类型——纵深打击和近距离战斗——中均跻身前三的制造商的原因。”
In a statement, Soren Monroe-Anderson, Neros’ chief executive and co-founder, called the Archer “highly modular and easily adapted to end-user needs.”“Pairing real warfighter feedback with our deep engineering talent is the reason Neros is the only manufacturer to have placed in the top three across two fundamentally different mission sets — deep strike and close-quarters battle — with the same drone platform,” he said.
美国国防部于2025年12月启动“无人机主导权”计划，拟直接向国内无人机市场投资10亿美元，并扩充军方的商用无人机供应。
The Defense Department launched Drone Dominance in December 2025, with plans to invest $1 billion directly into the domestic drone market and build up the military’s supply of commercial drones.
自那以来，五角大楼已完成一个半阶段（称为“Gauntlet”）以及三次作战测试。Neros在这些竞赛中分别获得第二名、第三名和第一名，为公司赢得了约1亿美元的订单。
Since then, the Pentagon has completed one-and-a-half phases, known as “Gauntlets,” along with three operational tests. Neros has ranked second, third and first in those competitions, earning the company roughly $100 million in orders.
Perennial公司表示，其设计“在多种远程超视距（BVLOS）距离下，经过了严格的发现—锁定—完成目标的测试”，并由操作员在昼夜任务中驾驶。
Perennial said its design was “tested across rigorous find-fix-finish objectives at various long-range beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) distances” and flown by operators during day and night missions.
该公司在新闻稿中表示：“这些系统在高度对抗的条件下证明了其作战可靠性，能够在关键时刻提供精确、自主的打击。”
“The systems proved their operational reliability under heavily contested conditions, to deliver precise, autonomous engagement when it counted,” the company said in a press release.
今年早些时候，美国国防部通过联合跨机构特遣部队401（JIATF-401）授予Perennial一份价值5亿美元的合同。该特遣部队负责为国防部研究、测试和采购反无人机技术。
Earlier this year, the Defense Department awarded Perennial a $500 million contract through Joint Interagency Task Force 401, or JIATF-401, which is responsible for researching, testing and procuring counter-drone technology for the department.
该公司由前谷歌首席执行官埃里克·施密特于2023年创立，并开发了Merops拦截器，供乌克兰部队用于对抗俄罗斯的单向攻击无人机。
The company was founded in 2023 by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and developed the Merops interceptor for Ukrainian forces to counter Russia’s one-way attack drones.
从10月开始，“无人机优势”竞赛将进入Gauntlet 2.5阶段，官员们将在这一阶段测试轰炸机平台。第三阶段预计将于明年春季开始，竞赛计划于明年秋季结束。
Beginning in October, the Drone Dominance competition will enter Gauntlet 2.5, in which officials will test bomber platforms. The third phase is expected to begin next spring, with the competition scheduled to conclude next fall.