How a new drone competition hopes to turn Fayetteville into a defense industry hub

A team of four drone pilots huddled around a card table laid out in a field at The Range Complex in Autryville, a Sampson County town located 30 minutes outside downtown Fayetteville.

“Let’s do this,” Curtis Hall, a pilot from defense and space manufacturing company T3i, said as he unfurled a map of the route the team was set to fly. “Figure we can set one of the buildings over here as our start point.”

“There are two targets in each lane,” said Chris Spangler, a Drone Racing League world champion, as he looked across the field to see one of the other teams already beginning its run. “So there are two over there, and two others on the other side of that berm over there.” 

“What do you want to drop?” asked Judah Koebel, a self-represented pilot and soldier from Fort Bragg.

A heavy gust of wind almost blew the competition map and Hall’s laptop to the ground.

“Something stable in the wind,” said Douglas Thompson, another self-represented pilot and soldier from Fort Bragg. 

Spangler, Thompson, Koebel, and Hall were among the 100 drone pilots who flew at the inaugural DCOMP, a two-day drone competition hosted by the Fayetteville-Cumberland Economic Development Corporation (FCEDC). Individual pilots and those representing defense companies and universities gathered on Oct. 8 and 9 to test their skills in a series of solo and team events.

The competition aimed to build North Carolina’s drone community and foster connections between academia, the military, and industry. The FCEDC had another goal in getting defense and tech companies like T3i, Red Cat, and Strategic Logix to Fayetteville: Show them that the city is where they should expand.

“There’s all this energy that’s here and all these developments that are going on that really make this a very attractive location, we think, for innovative companies, technology companies, anybody that wants to work with the military,” said Rob Patton Jr., executive vice president of FCEDC. “This is the spot to be.”

Competing with the Research Triangle

Defense and tech company representatives walked around The Range Complex on Oct. 9, watching teams of drone pilots “bomb” cars and other targets strewn across different flying lanes with plastic grenades and mortars.

Kai Wu looked on as a team made up of Purdue University students and service members barely missed one of the cars. Wu, head of finance and strategy for the Taiwanese lithium battery company VoltaSphere Technology Inc., was one of two company representatives determining whether Fayetteville could be a new manufacturing site. 

“A good point is that it seems the local government would welcome us, and it’s closer to the military, and there’s a high-quality labor force, particularly veterans from the military,” Wu said. “But, when it comes to R&D [research and development] talent, we have to think whether there’s enough.”

Greensboro is the other North Carolina site VoltaSphere is considering, Wu said. Closer to the Research Triangle, he said, the company has fewer worries about the available talent pool.

However, Patton said the talent in Cumberland County is being developed, particularly through Fayetteville Technical Community College’s Cyber Defense Education Center and Fayetteville State University’s Intelligent Systems Laboratory. FTCC’s center is recognized for its achievements by the National Security Agency and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. FSU’s lab is working with the intelligence and defense communities, as well as NASA, to develop artificial intelligence algorithms and software.

Patton said Goodyear Tires and the power management company Eaton are examples of the area’s manufacturing opportunities. FCEDC is also bringing more companies to the area, including SteelFab Inc., a steel fabrication company.

By gathering industry representatives who may know Fayetteville’s military connection but not its academic institutions or manufacturing history, Patton hoped to show the city’s promise as a new hub for their companies. 

“Discussions are going on here,” Patton said, gesturing toward the groups of industry and academic professionals spread across The Range Complex’s field. “This is really a low-threat environment. People could have conversations here, personal conversations, but may wind up with business or research opportunities.”

Using Fort Bragg’s proximity to Fayetteville’s advantage

The Army is focusing on modernization efforts following an April directive from U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to transform “the Army now for future warfare.” Many efforts have focused on drones, with Hegseth issuing a memorandum in July that rescinded restrictions on drone production. The Army is building an Amazon-like marketplace to get more drones into the hands of soldiers.

While soldiers are developing some new technology, many advancements are coming from juggernaut private sector defense companies like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Technologies Corporation. Smaller organizations like Cyberlux and others that gathered at DCOMP are also contributing to advancements in warfare tech. 

Patton knows that Fayetteville’s largest draw for companies developing drones and other new military tech is its proximity to Fort Bragg. That’s why the FCEDC’s new defense innovation center will include a classified meeting space and a sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF) for companies to use for meetings with military leadership.

The soon-to-be-built spaces address two issues, according to Dean Hoffman, a retired Army colonel whose company is helping build the center: Fort Bragg leadership’s lack of time to travel to the companies, and companies’ struggles getting cleared to bring their innovations on post.

“Our intent with this innovation center is to create a place where industry can come demonstrate their capabilities, because it’s very hard to get on Fort Bragg with a weapon,” said Hoffman, co-founder and president of Accel Innovation Corporation. “You’re not pulling up in a gate with a trailer full of weapons and ammo and demonstrating their use.”

To Hoffman, there can be a disconnect between engineers who’ve never served in the military and the needs of a soldier, sailor, or Marine. He hopes the FCEDC’s center will facilitate communication between companies and military leadership, leading to more streamlined technological development.

“The users, they got a job to do. They can’t go to California or Texas, where industry is, and tell them their problems,” Hoffman said. “But if you can bring industry to the user, and they can tell them, and that’s a win. Now industry has something that they know is a problem that they can work on.”

It’s why Andrew Valkenburg views Fayetteville as a prime location for the development of Strategic Logix’s customizable drone. Valkenburg, chief operating officer for Strategic Logix, said one of the company’s prime customers is Fort Bragg, and having more opportunities like DCOMP and the innovation center to show off and get feedback on their drones is crucial.

“There are some folks here that are looking to move their manufacturing in this area, and that’s why they’re here today,” Valkenburg said as the buzzing sound from drones filled the air. “They’re trying to understand if it’s a good area for them, and, almost unanimously, you’re gonna hear, ‘Yes, it’s a good area.’”

While not official, FCEDC hopes to hold DCOMP semi-annually. If all goes according to plan, the next competition will be sometime in April, Patton said, and hopefully will continue to show Fayetteville’s promise as a defense and tech industry hub.

CityView Reporter Morgan Casey is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Morgan’s reporting focuses on health care issues in and around Cumberland County and can be supported through the News Foundation of Greater Fayetteville.