Hoverfly Technologies, the world’s leading US-based tethered UAS provider, announced the official launch of Hoverfly Elements – a purpose-built line of NDAA-compliant drone components designed to meet the rigorous demands of defense and commercial UAS manufacturers. The announcement comes as the U.S. drone components market, valued at approximately $5.9 billion in 2025, is projected to exceed $14.4 billion by 2033, driven in large part by accelerating federal demand for verified, non-Chinese supply chains.
A LANDMARK DEBUT AT XPONENTIAL 2026
Elements is a new business division and brand under the Hoverfly company, focusing solely on defense drone components, the critical “elements” for the surging UAS industry. Initial offerings include drone motors and ESCs under the Motors suite–powered by KRM, and GPS modules – powered by Septentrio.
The launch of Elements at Xponential 2026 generated immediate and sustained attention from across the drone industry. The Hoverfly booth, beaming in bright orange, became a hub for substantive dialogue, drawing in program managers, systems integrators, procurement officers, OEM leaders, and defense technology innovators throughout the duration of the event. Conversations ranged from near-term procurement opportunities to long-range collaboration on custom component integration, with consistent enthusiasm around the timing and necessity of a domestically oriented, compliance-first component solution.
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“Xponential confirmed what we already knew: the market is urgently looking for exactly what we’ve built,” said Steve Walters, CEO of Hoverfly Technologies. “Industry leaders, potential partners, and key decision-makers came to our booth not just out of curiosity, they came with real problems that Hoverfly Elements is designed to solve. The energy was unlike anything we’ve experienced at a trade show.”
FILLING A CRITICAL GAP
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and recent Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rulings have fundamentally reshaped the drone component landscape. While previously dominant in the UAS supply chain, Chinese-manufactured components are no longer viable for an expanding class of federal, defense, and critical infrastructure applications. The result is a significant and underserved demand for trustworthy, verified, non-Chinese alternatives.
Additionally, the recent Drone Dominance Program (DDP) Supply Chain Framework mandates phased, component-level non-covered-country sourcing across $6.6 billion in sUAS procurement-tightening from NCC assembly in August 2026 to full domestic traceability by August 2027. Suppliers that cannot demonstrate compliance will be locked out entirely. Hoverfly Elements is built for exactly this environment.
Backed by strategic investment and support from Korea Robot Manufacturing (KRM), the Elements Motor line combines allied-sourced Korean motor manufacturing with Hoverfly’s domestic drone expertise, creating a supply chain that is both compliant and credible. These motors satisfy C Phase 2 requirements at launch and an active on-shoring roadmap targets Phase 3 and 4 domestic production standards, laying the groundwork for fully domestic component production at scale. The result is a suite of compliant, high-performance propulsion solutions, “powered by KRM.”
SOURCE: Hoverfly Technologies