When a U.S. AH-64 Apache helicopter was shot down near the Strait of Hormuz in June, the two American crew members climbed aboard a 24-foot Saronic Corsair autonomous surface vessel operated by the U.S. 5th Fleet’s Task Force 59. The drone was able to get to the crew within two hours of the incident and transported them to a safer location for a helicopter pickup. Maritime drones have long been deployed in sea mine clearance missions to minimize risks to sailors, but the rescue by the Corsair marks the first known occasion that one has been used to save troops during combat.

This remarkable achievement underlines the fact that we are witnessing a profound transformation in the way wars are fought. A powerful combination of unmanned systems, rapidly adaptable weaponry, and rising asymmetric capabilities of adversaries is changing how conflicts are playing out. Victory in the future will depend on how fast and effectively the United States responds to this new battlefield landscape.

The contours of that landscape are being traced clearly in both Ukraine and Iran. Earlier this year, Ukraine took back a Russian position using just drones and armed, unmanned ground vehicles. Resupply routes inside Russian-occupied territory are now being mined remotely by drones. And the Ukrainians are constantly upgrading their weapons to deal with Russian countermeasures.

When UFORCE, an IQT portfolio company from Ukraine, learned that Russian jets were sinking its Magura maritime drones, which had already damaged multiple Russian vessels, it began mounting Sidewinder missiles on the drones to counter the aerial threat.

This rapid response cycle—and the use of drones more broadly, both in Ukraine and in Iran—are emblematic of a new era that I call Forward-Deployed Conflict. To ensure victory against adversaries who wage asymmetric warfare—and to prepare for potential military engagements in the South China Sea and elsewhere—America must lead in the three fundamental pillars that support this major change.

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The Intelligence Edge

The first one is Forward-Deployed Intelligence, which involves outmatching adversaries in edge collection and processing capabilities.

Among our hundreds of investments in AI-related companies, IQT has backed multiple businesses whose technology supports mission partners’ capabilities in this pillar. Armada AI, for instance, makes Galleons, which are ruggedized mobile data centers in container-like boxes that can be shipped near to conflict zones and make it possible to do inference processing at the edge. Another example is Fiddler AI, whose low-latency, high-performance monitoring and analysis of unstructured data such as videos, images, and sensor data helps drones detect potential threats and improves targeting.

Forward-Deployed Intelligence extends to the sea and to space. Our portfolio company, Sofar, has built the largest privately owned network of smart buoys that use sensors and AI to provide accurate maritime domain awareness, and we have invested in multiple satellite imaging companies since 2013, when IQT became one of the earliest private investors in the commercial space domain.

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The Manufacturing Edge

The second of the three strategic pillars is Forward-Deployed Manufacturing. While the military will continue to rely on stockpiles of exquisite systems made by trusted vendors during conflicts, it’s imperative that our warfighters have the ability to manufacture things fast and cheaply closer to where they are going to be used.

This matters because the platforms, sensors and software required on Day 100 of a conflict can often be completely different from those deployed on Day 10, as Ukrainian soldiers constantly adapting drones and other systems on the frontline can testify.

IQT has been actively investing in this pillar too, backing companies such as San Diego-based Firestorm, which builds modular containers packed with 3D printers and other equipment designed to manufacture entire drones and parts, and Austin-based ICON, whose transportable, multi-story 3D printing tech makes it possible to build structures in remote locations using a proprietary concrete-like material.

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The Integration Edge

Forward-Deployed Intelligence is primarily focused on bits and Forward-Deployed Manufacturing is mainly focused on atoms. The third and final fundamental pillar—Forward-Deployed Integration—involves effectively fusing these bits and atoms together for maximum mission impact.

Traditional command-and-control architectures that marry software and hardware aren’t suited for managing lots of different systems in contested environments that can span multiple operational domains.

What’s needed are flexible autonomy stacks with onboard decision-making guided by AI. These need to integrate intelligence insights and to be paired with resilient communications architectures that support intermittent connectivity in GPS-denied environments.

Kela, an Israeli startup that IQT has invested in, has developed a flexible open architecture platform with embedded AI that integrates different commercial and military systems, and Auterion, another of our portfolio companies, has built an integrated software stack that ensures compatibility across strike, reconnaissance and sea-based systems.

Space is inevitably going to be integrated into Forward‑Deployed Conflict too, and we have been investing in readiness for that future, backing companies that advance satellite imagery and Earth observation, such as Capella Space, and those building the launch and spacecraft infrastructure necessary for operations, including Rocket Lab. We have also invested in Starcloud, providing GPU‑class compute on orbit. This serves a dual role: compute assets in space can process and act on data which would otherwise have to be transmitted to Earth from spacecraft via vulnerable high-latency downlinks, and forward-deployed forces on the ground can benefit from data-center-like compute power from space in austere environments where local infrastructure is unavailable, degraded, or destroyed.

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The Vital Strategic Edge

At its core, Forward-Deployed Conflict is about creating a set of much more agile and responsive intelligence and warfighting capabilities, with a significantly increased emphasis on autonomous systems such as the one that rescued the Apache helicopter crew members near the Strait of Hormuz.

If we can successfully achieve this transformation, America will gain a crucial advantage over our adversaries—especially ones like the People’s Republic of China that have more rigid command and control mentalities.

There’s much more work to be done to make this vision a reality, but together with our government partners, the incredibly impressive entrepreneurs we work with, and the broader innovation ecosystem, IQT is already rising to the challenge.

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