China Didn't Have to Steal This Data. It Was Already Coming to Them.
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| By Bob Czeschin |
This morning we told you the Pentagon is racing to out-build a $1,000 drone problem with a stockpile of low-cost weapons of its own.
Here's the part we left out: China may not need to build that stockpile at all.
It might already be collecting the blueprints for free.
The Cameras Were Already Talking
This week, the Telegraph broke a story worth your attention …
Cameras fitted to K3 Scout surveillance drones — used by Britain's Royal Navy and its elite special forces — were caught quietly transmitting data to an IP address in China.
The Ministry of Defence says it was only a "heartbeat" signal confirming the cameras were online, nothing more.
Maybe so. But it still had to strip internet connectivity from a £12 million fleet that had been flying near sensitive special-forces briefings since March.
It's the same warning the FCC has been sounding about DJI and Autel for years …
Under Chinese national security law, any Chinese company can be compelled to hand data to the state.
The badge on the drone — military, hobbyist, surveillance — doesn't matter.
Washington's Fix Is Slower Than the Problem
The Pentagon's answer is to wall off the supply chain.
Its Blue UAS and Drone Dominance Program now requires 60% of a drone's components, by cost, to be American-made — with that bar set to climb through 2027.
It's the right instinct. It's also a multiyear industrial buildout, competing for capital and factory space against every other reshoring effort in Washington's playbook right now.
Which is really the whole trade, in one line …
While the U.S. spends its lunch money rebuilding a domestic drone supply chain from scratch, China is already sitting on one.
Not that we'd ever ask to borrow it.
You already met the actual hardware this morning, but it's worth saying again …
The Blitz drone at the center of all this is built the same way as your picnic cooler — steam chest molding, no autoclaves, no exotic supply chain. A flying beer cooler that outmaneuvers a $1.6 million missile.
That's the whole thesis in one image.
But the ways to play it are worth sharing again …
The 5 Names, Priced Today
This is the same watchlist we gave you this morning. They are not official “buy” recommendations — just a starting point for your own research.
Ondas (ONDS) — $9.29. Now owns DZYNE's Blitz/BlitzBox line outright, on top of its own Optimus and Sentrycs systems.
AeroVironment (AVAV) — $186.78. Riding a fresh Army laser contract and rising counter-drone demand.
AEVEX (AVEX) — $21.68. Builds precision strike drones and runs red-team testing for the rest of the industry.
Red Cat Holdings (RCAT) — $10.14. Battlefield-proven tactical drones. It is volatile, but a name that keeps showing up in the Ukraine-replacement conversation.
Redwire (RDW) — $12.70. Edge Autonomy acquisition brought swarm-capable reconnaissance drones into the fold.
My colleagues have discussed a few of these in previous articles. But one is new: AEVEX.
The reason you might not have heard of it before is because it actually IS new.
It just went public four months ago on the NYSE.
That’s too recent to have a long-term Weiss stock rating. (We like several quarters of data before we assign those.)
However, this is a great way to showcase a project we just launched for our Weiss Ratings Plus members:
We just rolled out IPO Scores on hundreds of recent and upcoming stocks just hitting the market.
As you can see, AEVEX got a score of “Investable — Added Caution.”
That means it has potential. But it remains somewhat risky considering its size, financial picture and place in the market.
To get all of the features we have been rolling out — and will continue to give members — watch this brand-new presentation.
Best,
Bob Czeschin
1https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/08/09/spy-cameras-on-navy-drones-secretly-sent-data-to-china/
