High-tech manufacturing can return to the United States faster than you might think.
Take the case of Unusual Machines, a maker and seller of components for drones for both military and commercial use. At a time when 85% of the world’s drones are manufactured in China, it took the company less than a year to get its first domestic plant up and running in Orlando, Florida. Today, it can match or even undercut China’s prices for drone parts, according to chief executive officer Allan Evans.
Unusual Machines has a somewhat complex history. Formerly known as Aerocarve US Corporation, it was incorporated in Florida in 2019. In February of 2024, it acquired two businesses from Red Cat Holdings, of which Evans was previously CEO: Fat Shark, a designer and maker of first-person view (FPV) video goggles for drone pilots, and Rotor Riot, an e-commerce marketplace for drone components. (In 2021, Red Cat acquired Teal Drones, which set up a factory in Salt Lake City, Utah for manufacturing the Golden Eagle, a drone approved by the U.S. Department of Defense for reconnaissance and inspection.)
Evans’s interest in drone technology goes back to his days as a “Silicon Valley startup kid,” making virtual-reality headsets. He later spent a decade in China, building production lines for the VR companies that he was a part of.
As the U.S. government became aware of the need to reduce its reliance on China for drones, Red Cat stepped up its investment in domestic production. “We realized that there was no [domestic] supply chain for drone parts,” Evans says. And, with the breaking out of wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, obtaining critical parts became a national security issue.
For its part, having acquired Fat Shark and Rotor Riot, Unusual Machines saw an opportunity to make relatively low-cost drone components, including motors and flight controllers, in the U.S. To succeed, it needed to be within 20% of the price of Chinese equivalents, Evans says.
Given the complexity of what goes into a drone, the company’s supply network could never be entirely domestic in origin, although most of its electronics are produced in Orlando. “Supply chains are super-spider-webby,” Evans says, referring to the many subcomponents, components and assemblies that make them up.
The profitability of the Orlando plant necessitates, first, production at scale. Unusual Machine operates with a minimum order quantity of 10,000 units, Evans says.
He adds that the company seeks to minimize the number of SKUs it produces. A larger drone parts seller such as T-Motor might offer 300 motor sizes, for example, while Unusual Machines’ store has just three.
Tariffs imposed by the U.S. on drone parts from China and other countries have given the company “some cushion,” Evans says, “but we can’t expect tariffs or regulatory walls to last forever. We’re trying to build a company that doesn’t depend on them.” That means relying on automation, high volumes and a limited number of SKUs “to get our pricing to the point where we can have reasonable margins.”
Even in facilities with a high degree of assembly-line automation, a shortage of human labor is often cited as a major challenge to manufacturers looking to boost domestic production. But Evans says Unusual Machines hasn’t had problems attracting staff in Orlando. “We’re an exciting place to work,” he says, adding that assembly technicians are salaried, with healthcare and stock options. As for advanced degrees, “we’re not too fussy about education — it’s more about attitude and work ethic. Those who work for us care a lot about the product.”
Can other high-tech manufacturers with similar reshoring ambitions learn from Unusual Machines’ experience? To a certain extent, but Evans concedes that at least some of the company’s success can be chalked up to current geopolitical developments and a metaphorical roll of the dice in the face of extreme uncertainty. “We made some assumptions about where the market is going,” he says. “If we had turned out to be wrong, we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation right now.” Still, he believes that Unusual Machines was able to tap into the “western advantages” of creative automation that are making it possible to ramp up manufacturing in the U.S.
The company’s goal now is to continue scaling its production model, even as it awaits crucial government orders over the next few months. It’s too early to consider expanding operations elsewhere in the U.S., Evans says. “I think there’s too much uncertainty to decide. Between now and October, we’re going to see how much money gets injected into the system. Ultimately, customer demand is going to dictate what we do strategically.”