Before You Sign a UAV Deal — Someone Needs to Fly the Platform
The Missing Layer in Due Diligence
Investment funds, technology acquirers and M&A teams all run financial and legal due diligence. Technical due diligence on a UAV platform usually stays on paper: specs, code review, engineering interviews.
The problem: specs can be written to order. Code can be polished. Engineers tell the version they want you to hear.
What you cannot fake is a flight.
What Technical Due Diligence Adds
Technical Due Diligence adds the layer that is missing from the standard process: an independent test day where I fly the platform, evaluate it against declared specifications and deliver a direct report. What the system actually does, where the gaps are, and what risks didn’t show up in the boardroom.
For Both Sides of the Table
The report is written in language both investors and engineers understand — because sometimes they both need to hear the same thing from someone who actually flew it.
Related reading
The Reaper Fired at a Drone. The Real Story Is the Mission Chain.
France's MQ-9 Reaper counter-drone test is not just a Hellfire story. It is a lesson in mission-envelope expansion across sensor, operator, C2, weapon, procedures and field conditions.
Read ArticleInterceptor UAV Trials Become Interesting When Teams Repeat Them
Dedicated crews, repeated interception runs and operator training say more about emerging capability than the interceptor headline itself.
Read ArticleMoving a Capability Airborne Changes More Than the Payload Mount
Adapting an established system for airborne use sounds straightforward until power, cooling, interfaces, crew workflow and mission context all change at once.
Read Article