$DPRO Just Had A Record Quarter — Here's What's Coming Next
📅 May 20, 2026Benzinga12 MIN919 VIEWS24 SEGMENTS · 2 SPEAKERS
Draganfly (NASDAQ: DPRO) CEO Cameron Chell joins Benzinga's PreMarket Playbook to break down the company's newly awarded U.S. Army DEVCOM contract with F4 Defense International to develop an ultra-mobile, man-packable counter-drone (C-UAS) system for forward operating bases and tactical units. Cameron also unpacks Draganfly's new Blitz optical payload line — bringing NDAA-compliant military-grade gimbals to market at a fraction of competitor pricing — and explains why "AI is a payload" in today's drone arms race. Plus: a Q3 record, what Ukraine boots-on-the-ground experience teaches the busine...
What Cameron Chell said
Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.
Cameron Chell, CEO of Draganfly, discussed a new contract with Army DEVCOM to build an ultra-mobile, man-packable counter-drone system for targeting and defeat, protecting forward operating bases and troops from swarms and Shahed drones. He highlighted the partnership with F4I Defense and Draganfly's 27 years of experience, including operations in Ukraine since 2022. Chell also announced a deal with Blitz for NDAA-compliant optical payloads, with plans to acquire the company, and noted they will assemble these systems in their plants within four months. He stated the company had a record quarter and is confident in hitting the consensus revenue estimate of $18 million this year, predicting revenue could exceed $1 billion. Chell explained that AI is currently treated as a payload, with modular systems allowing integration of various AI and sensors, and that they sell primarily to the Department of War, DND, and allied nations.
Key takeaways
Draganfly was awarded an initial contract by Army DEVCOM to build a man-packable counter-drone system for targeting and defeat.
Chell is confident Draganfly will hit the consensus revenue estimate of $18 million this year, with potential to exceed $1 billion.
Draganfly has a deal with Blitz for optical payloads, with plans to acquire the company and assemble systems in-house within four months.
Draganfly's optical systems are priced at about $15,000, compared to competitors' $45,000, with higher-end systems up to $250,000.
Chell said AI is currently treated as a payload, with modular systems allowing integration of various AI and sensors.
Yeah, no problem. Look, I love having you on. I love giving updates and I love having the CEO talk directly about what's going on. So, thanks for joining us. Welcome to the show here today. Let's just go ahead and get started with it here. I see that you reported some news here today. This is for Dragonfly, of course. The ticker is DPRO on the NASDAQ. It's amazing news this morning, Cameron. Can you tell us more about it?
Yeah, so we've been awarded a contract to do initial build-out to build an ultra-mobile counter-drone system that will do targeting and defeat. And it needs to be man-packable. So, we have a number of technologies that we've demonstrated to Army DEVCOM, who's awarded us this initial contract, that can actually allow a soldier to man-pack a counter-drone system to go protect a forward operating base or an overnight encampment or in a trench line that they're in. And be protecting it in a way where you can protect against swarms or potentially even Shahed 136 and 139s.
There's a lot of counter-drone business happening out there. They tend to be very big systems, rely on heavy radar, large investment, not mobile. And they're great. And there's obviously a really important need for those in particular around infrastructure. But when you get out into tactical operations or you get your forward operating bases, the advent of this thing called no-man's-land is basically nobody goes in where a drone can show up because there's no effective protection for boots on the ground. And so, that's what we aim to look to do. It's also small enough to be able to fit on tanks or light armored vehicles and things like that. So, it's a huge validation for Dragonfly.
It's in partnership with F4I Defense who's a very well-established prime and subprime. And then having us selected and implement the technology and then be able to do the training around it is—it's something that couldn't be a better client to have and it really highlights the technology and the adaptability that we've got in the entire drone space.
Yeah, that's absolutely fantastic. I was going to ask you why it's important, but you actually hit on a couple of things there. Mobile and makes the warfighter more agile. Obviously, that's going to help keep these folks alive and all of that. Validation of your technology. Is there anything else in there I'm missing as to why this is so important for you folks?
Well, you know, I think what a lot of customers that are coming to us that are primarily military customers are recognizing is that the best drone defeat company is a company that knows how to make drones and is busy defeating drone defeat companies. Also, we've got 27 years of experience. We're boots on the ground. We've been in Ukraine since '22. We know the operational environment. We've been building systems for aerial environment for years and years that for a long time they were our best client.
We were literally doing counter-drone systems 15 years ago and FPVs 17 years ago. So, a lot of this isn't new technology. It's just now actually being applied in an operational environment and the costs are down where they just become incredibly effective. So, I think that operational experience and the ability to actually—we're in a spot now where we can scale. We've built up plants for the last couple years. I think it's starting to bear fruit for us. We appreciate it. We've got to continue to make the grade every single day. We're in service to the warfighter. So, there's no room for error, but it's great to see us winning these really important strategic contracts.
Yeah, yeah, you have to keep executing, but this is a really good sign of the success along the way there. I'm totally totally with you on that. Now, I also noticed that you had news yesterday, right? So, you announced that Dragonfly Blitz advanced optical payload product line to address the growing demand for best-in-class NDAA compliant integrated gimbal systems. Can you—there's a lot of jargon in there—can you explain that to us and why that's important?
8 more exchanges in this transcript
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Chell, C. (2026, May 20). $DPRO Just Had A Record Quarter — Here's What's Coming Next [Interview transcript]. Benzinga. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1175814/
MLA
Cameron Chell. "$DPRO Just Had A Record Quarter — Here's What's Coming Next." Benzinga, 20 May. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1175814/.
BibTeX
@misc{chell2026_1175814,
author = {Cameron Chell},
title = {$DPRO Just Had A Record Quarter — Here's What's Coming Next},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, Benzinga. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {may},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1175814/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
