Perennial Autonomy tops Gauntlet II drone trials as Ukrainian firms miss top five

Perennial Autonomy, a drone company founded and funded by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, topped the Deep Strike category in Gauntlet II, the second round of the Department of War’s Drone Dominance Program, according to TechRadar. The competition seeks effective, low-cost one-way attack drones that can be produced in bulk.

Perennial led the next-best competitor by 9.2 points. That was not a record: fourth-place Skycutter won Gauntlet I in March 2026 by about 12 points. No Ukrainian firms made the top five in the latest Deep Strike results, despite four entrants linked to Ukrainian drone makers reaching the trials at Fort Carson, Colorado. Stellarion and UDD Tech Corp flew Deep Strike; Grim Tech and Wilcox Cherry Defense competed in Close Quarters.

Earlier results had included Ukrainian-linked companies. UDD was among 11 companies reported to have secured Gauntlet I orders, and by mid-August it was one of three vendors reported to have completed deliveries, alongside Neros and Griffon Aerospace. Skycutter is headquartered in London, but its Gauntlet I-winning Shrike 10 was developed by Ukraine’s SkyFall.

Stellarion attributed its result to logistics, telling Defender Media that export permits and shipping delays complicated integration with American components, including warheads. The article says finalists had about five weeks to deliver 120 drones with live payloads, and that US procurement requirements and restrictions on some motors and batteries added challenges. Logistics are a plausible explanation for the results, not a confirmed cause.