Sumantra Maitra
Justin Marston is the founder and CEO of Mithril Defense, a drone startup based in Texas that aims to provide security solutions for domestic law and order problems. Its flagship program includes drones that are armed with pepper sprays to neutralize school-shooting suspects, the first such project in the United States. It’s a new company and boasts a team that includes a Seal Team Six command chief. Marston sat down with The American Conservative to answer some questions on why drones are the future, where we stand in a competition with China, and what the main challenges facing drone startups in the U.S. are.
What are the challenges facing the U.S. when it comes to drone swarms?
China totally dominates the drone industry. DJI makes over 70 percent of the drones that are purchased, and likely has components in half of the rest. You really have to purposefully design to be non-Chinese, otherwise some of the chips in the drone will have come from China. This is true in Ukraine and Russia too—the vast majority of the drones made in both countries have some if not the majority of their components coming from China, even if the drone itself is assembled in the local country. It's difficult to understate how much China is the center of gravity for the drone industry.
All the drones currently manufactured in the U.S. are really too expensive (and often not smart enough) to run in drone swarms. There are lightshow drones that are really stupid and less of a threat. Most of the big ones you see are like that—they follow pre-prepared flight plans like a dance. As an example, this drone light show had 10,000 drones; they probably cost $200 to $300 each.
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