Drones: The Next Chapter in this Frontier and CST’s role!

AUVSI Spring 2025 Symposium Demonstrates that Innovation Continues to Soar presenting many opportunities for the electronics/semiconductor industry

The Drone market, also formally referred to as Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)  is experiencing huge growth and innovation with several exciting capabilities, technologies, and applications afoot in this exciting sector. Many of these innovations were highlighted at this recently hosted AUVSI Spring Symposium in Pendleton, Oregon (April 24-25, 2025).

I, and CST’s Director of Business Development, Jack Frost, attended this event. CST also sponsored a booth which enabled us to inform the 175 attendees and co-exhibitors about Cascade’s capabilities, services, and experience providing EMS services to the Military/Aerospace community.

For those unfamiliar with the AUVSI, which stands for “Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International, is an organization chartered to encourage growth and development of the drone industry, called UAS (Unmanned Aircraft Systems). More specifically, and according to AUVSI website, “AUVSI envisions a future where uncrewed systems, robotics, and autonomous technologies are seamlessly integrated to solve critical challenges resulting in lasting safety and societal benefits, economic growth, and enhanced national security.” And, from a membership standpoint, “AUVSI represents leaders from more than 60 countries across industry, government, and academia in the defense, civil and commercial sectors.”

The Pacific Northwest is home to numerous companies in this space, including Insitu (a subsidiary of Boeing), Hood Technologies, Trillium Engineering, Sierra-Olympia, Aerovel (now an Airbus company), etc. With many of these entities based in nearby Hood River, OR, Bingen, WA, and Pendleton, it is forming a large and fast-growing community of drone companies and associated businesses, e.g., testing services; developers and manufacturers of drone attachments such as cameras, gimbals, multitudinous sensors; developers of remote control and onboard software using AI, and much more.

CST is already delivering projects for their customers in this space, but we nevertheless continue to be amazed at where UAV technology is heading.

Just a few examples:

• In addition to the growing number of military-use cases (you can read more about these in this excellent WSJ story), there are many commercial applications for drones: Drones with LED lights to light up construction sites; to record and broadcast sports activities; to aid medical emergencies, search and rescue; for early detection of, and to help fight, wildfires; to aid in law enforcement; among many others.
• An emerging application centers on “counter” drones (C-UAS), whose mission is to detect and destroy offensive drones. Among companies in this category that we saw in this segment were companies developing drones to guard federal penitentiaries from other drones that are dropping narcotics/drugs into the prison without being detected by traditional surveillance methods. (Honestly, who even knew that was a problem?)
• Just as it is permeating and impacting so many other industries, AI is now in evidence within the UAV sector.
  • Case in point: Ziz Defense is building an AI training model to detect incoming drones without cameras; rather, they identify airborne threats by their acoustic signatures!
  • And Cach AI is developing a highly secure inter-device cloud system enabled/embedded in “edge” devices (e.g., drones) without the need to connect to a cloud on the ground. (It’s essentially a moving “cloud” operating across multiple drones without a traditional ground connection to the actual “cloud” as we know it. And, yes, that means a ton of computing power on board the UAVs themselves… A real challenge from a power, weight, form-factor, and harsh-environment standpoint!)

Back from this trip, Jack and I are more convinced than ever that America’s UAS market – and aviation/aerospace segment in general – remain and will actually accelerate as hotbeds of innovation.

That’s even more true now, given recent investments in and focus on BOTH new generations of U.S.-made semiconductor technology AND the electronics suppliers that surround and enable such chips, CST’s solutions are among them.

Contact us for any of your circuit board and full system assembly needs.

–  Shantanu R. Gupta,
President & CEO, Cascade Systems Technology

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