Axios Huntsville
August 21, 2025
1 big thing: 🏭 PDW's new Huntsville drone factory builds for major impact
Performance Drone Works officially cut the ribbon Wednesday on its 90,000-square-foot Drone Factory 01 in Huntsville.
Why it matters: The drone maker's goal of quickly making inexpensive, flexible and easy-to-use drones for every U.S. warfighter aims to impact how America fights future conflicts.
- As drone use becomes more prevalent in combat, PDW is also bullish on its ability to compete in the drone market with China.
What they're saying: "If you look at Ukraine as an example, they have access to all the U.S. and NATO military supplies, and today, [the majority of] strikes are being done with a dinner plate-sized drone," PDW CEO Ryan Gury told Axios Huntsville.
- "This is not a company of tech bros chasing sci-fi ideas," PDW chief strategy officer Trevor Smith said at the event. "We are building with combat insight and future doctrine in mind."
Zoom in: PDW's flagship products on display Wednesday were the C100 multi-mission unmanned aircraft system (UAS) and the AM-FPV attritable munition.
- "It is an assault rifle for drones: ergonomics, tactics, cost and scale, simplicity," Gury said of the C100. "It is the first drone made as a combat system."
Catch up quick: PDW plans to hire at least 500 employees in the next few years at the vastly larger location on Diamond Drive, where it's been producing drones for the past few months.
PDW co-founder Matt Higgins said that structurally, there's no impediment stopping American industry from rivaling China's dominance of the drone market.
- "It's not that we can't produce (drones), it's that we weren't focusing on making sure that we had an integrated domestic supply chain," he said. "But that's changing very, very rapidly."
Driving the news: Higgins, also co-founder of RSE Ventures alongside Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, said the demand signal coming from the federal government "is intense."
- "This administration is speaking in demand signals in ways that will make more capital flood into the industry," he told Axios.
Zoom out: "This is the future of warfare," said PDW investor, philanthropist and "Restaurant: Impossible" celebrity chef Robert Irvine. "The work ... will shape the future of our world that we live in for years to come."
Go deeper: These drones made the Pentagon's cut for Replicator
2. America's hottest — and coolest — job markets
The job market is hotter than average in some states but cooler in others, new data shows.
The big picture: Americans are feeling almost as gloomy about the job market as they did during the Great Recession — and entry-level workers are having an especially hard time getting their foot in the door.
By the numbers: South Dakota (1.9% unemployment); North Dakota (2.5%) and Vermont (2.6%) had July's lowest unemployment rates, based on preliminary and seasonally-adjusted Bureau of Labor Statistics data out Tuesday.
- The national unemployment rate for July was 4.2%.
- Washington, D.C. (6%); California (5.5%) and Nevada (5.4%) had the highest.
- Alabama's 3% comes in at 1.2% lower than the national rate, and ranks as the seventh-lowest state.
Zoom in: California had the only statistically significant month-to-month jump in unemployment among states, BLS says, rising 0.1 percentage points from June.
- Alabama was also listed among states with significant month-to-month changes, but for a drop of 0.2% between June and July.
3. Orbit: ☢️ Radioactive shrimp pulled from Walmart shelves
4. 🎸 Huntsville heads to Nashville for AMERICANAFEST
Axios Huntsville
