Steven Simoni

President @ Allen Control Systems. Founder and CEO of Bbot, acq by DoorDash. Host of The Drone Ultimatum - number 1 defense tech podcast.

[Steven Simoni @StevenSimoni]

Allen Control Systems makes Bullfrog, an autonomous counter drone weapon station....and we are HIRING (roles at https://t.co/TSXBDV1Z7J)!

@waltmac of @CBSAustin visited us to learn more about Bullfrog and how it meets the rising drone threat with unmatched precision:

[Steven Simoni @StevenSimoni]

@tolly_xyz @allencontrol Ya we should @jackusherr wdyt

[Steven Simoni @StevenSimoni]

Drones are so nasty. “the IEDs fly now”.

Even marked humanitarian vehicles aren’t safe.

@allencontrol Systems will change that.

We are hiring like crazy to keep up with demand for Bullfrog

1. Go to our site for open roles
2. Follow and DM me when you’ve applied

[OCHA Ukraine @OCHA_Ukraine]

Today, delivering aid to people in severe need of assistance and under constant attack in #Kherson, a clearly marked @UN vehicle was struck by a drone.
Over 200 civilians, mostly older people, remain there.

More from the Head of @UNOCHA in Ukraine, who accompanied the convoy⬇️

[Steven Simoni @StevenSimoni]

@cwamidon They’ll look like acs actually

[Steven Simoni @StevenSimoni]

@mikeahorton @HyfixAI @DroneUltimatum Loved it! Short and sweet but very informative :)

[Steven Simoni @StevenSimoni]

Drones redefined warfare because they are fast, lethal, and cheap

Battlefield economics, the cost of defending equipment and people vs attacking to destroy them, is flipped in favor of the attackers with drones

BULLFROG flips those costs back:

[Steven Simoni @StevenSimoni]

@ArfurRock @Mach_Industries Let’s go Mach!! Crushing it!

[Steven Simoni @StevenSimoni]

POV: you're in the back of a pickup truck with an @allencontrol Bullfrog protecting you from incoming drones

[Steven Simoni @StevenSimoni]

Every military will have to relearn the lessons of the Ukraine Russia war at great cost in human lives, or get really smart really fast on counter drone solutions

if you're out in the open, you're out in the open:

[Warfare Analysis @warfareanalysis]

⚡️Hezbollah:

Targeting Israeli army soldiers position and a Humvee in the vicinity of the historic Beaufort Castle in southern Lebanon with two Ababil drones, on 31.05.2026.

[Steven Simoni @StevenSimoni]

Guess who will also start regularly using drones with explosives?

[Drone Wars @Drone_Wars_]

Members of organized crime (the criminal group is unknown), showing 2 drones of the DJI brand, model Matrice 400 RTK, along with explosive devices, one of the individuals carries a portable drone locator Vodasafe HL2.

Source: belikmexican.telegram
#DroneWars

[Steven Simoni @StevenSimoni]

Good morning, America is worth defending

[ASN Ben Kohlmann @NavyASNMRA]

Good morning America is worth defending

[Steven Simoni @StevenSimoni]

@hsm4ai @elonmusk yep (and we have non-kinetic solutions too)

[Steven Simoni @StevenSimoni]

We love @elonmusk and his companies.

The Gigafactories will not be threatened by drones, not on Bullfrog's watch.

[The Drone Ultimatum @DroneUltimatum]

“@elonmusk is an entrepreneur that's next level because...he gets other entrepreneurs to run his businesses. A founder of founders.”

Once a founder builds enough credibility, they stop attracting just employees or investors. They also start attracting future founders.

That creates a compounding network effect around talent, capital, recruiting, and company creation that’s difficult to replicate once it reaches scale.

You can already see similar dynamics starting to emerge in defense and hard tech around @PalmerLuckey and Anduril.

[Steven Simoni @StevenSimoni]

@SVDG_official @jpmorgan I really hope to make this list some day! Impressive stuff!

[Steven Simoni @StevenSimoni]

@JohnDDulin The real battlefield is high school football.

[Steven Simoni @StevenSimoni]

In today's competitive manufacturing space, you can't let great young talent go un-recruited.

So we are sponsoring the football team and taking over the shop class for the kids at Cullman High in Alabama.

[Steven Simoni @StevenSimoni]

Drones will improve in autonomy and numbers flown in a sortie but today, in the real world, this is what has upended the battlefield economics.

We are HIRING: https://t.co/fEfN3d03Wc especially in manufacturing roles.

The mission is critical, the upside is enormous. Join us!

[Steven Simoni @StevenSimoni]

An important lesson:

Look at this real world FPV attack:

No 'swarm', not very fast (it has a payload), no acrobatics

But for ~$1k, it eliminates an Iron Dome's 10 Tamir interceptors costing ~$3M, intended to stop much worse missile attacks on even costlier infrastructure

[OSINTtechnical @Osinttechnical]

Yesterday, Hezbollah forces attacked the Israeli Iron Dome launch site at Jall el Aalam, with an FPV drone successfully hitting a loaded missile firing unit.

[Steven Simoni @StevenSimoni]

Everyone should watch this from @naval

We are still so, so early with drones and the threats they pose.

In just four years, drones have become responsible for *80%* of casualties in the Russia Ukraine war. Think about that:

That means guns, rockets, landmines, bombs fired from sophisticated launchers or expensive vehicles like helicopters, planes, even artillery - the king of the battlefield - have become minor players compared to drones.

The threat will be global and yet acute; global, because the costs are so much lower. Rebel and insurgent and terrorist forces will have not just an ‘asymmetric advantage’ but *the* advantage providing technology (recall: 80% of casualties in a war between two highly funded modern militaries, are by drones).

But an acute threat, because instead of the effect of these new fires being widespread and chaotic (which actually gives defenders a chance) they will be ultra-targeted and precise. Think more like, specific structural points of infrastructure from skyscrapers to nuclear power plants and particular faces from leaders to dissidents being recognized and targeted.

Another example: think about the capex that is going to just datacenter buildout across the world over the next ten years. Imagine what kind of insurance (and the insurer’s) reinsurance is involved in protecting all of that compute and all of that data and all of those people. It’s enormous.

Drones, among other things, will be part of the threat model facing their physical security, their power infrastructure, and their personnel. All of that investment will be at risk, in part, from drones.

The problem is so enormous, it’s bigger than you think, and it’s going to get more global and more acute.

[Naval Podcast @navalpodcast]

New:

The Logic of Violence
A podcast film

[Steven Simoni @StevenSimoni]

This one is so good. Weston and Jonathan have a talent for going both broad and deep.

Highly relevant content well outside of defense tech for founders:

[The Drone Ultimatum @DroneUltimatum]

NEW POD: Weston Moyer (@westonmoyer) and Jonathan Rue from MVP Ventures (@MVP_Ventures) joined The Drone Ultimatum.

We talked defense tech investing, why scale matters, the government sales maze, and the need for the next generation of defense companies to become serious industrial powerhouses.

00:00:00 — Intro

00:02:13 — Anthropic, AI governance, and Pentagon supply chain risk

00:07:16 — Saronic, defense manufacturing scale, and shipbuilding capacity

00:08:46 — Guam, Pacific logistics, and missile defense strategy

00:12:25 — Shahed drones and the economics of counter-UAS

00:14:04 — Government contracts, appropriations, and how defense sales actually work

00:16:02 — SBIRs, defense competitions, and startup opportunities

00:17:35 — Valinor Industries and building defense companies around Washington expertise

00:29:38 — Anduril, Lattice, and software-defined warfare

00:31:10 — Why the U.S. needs far more defense manufacturing capacity

00:33:12 — Freeform and the future of advanced manufacturing

00:41:28 — Why overcapitalization can hurt defense startups

00:43:43 — Ukraine lessons, real-world combat testing, and preparing for China

00:52:09 — AI, robotics, and what a Taiwan conflict could look like

00:53:19 — Industrial mobilization and converting American industry for wartime production

00:54:21 — Apple, China, and the risks of manufacturing dependency

00:56:40 — Friday Night Lights, military culture, and leadership psychology

01:04:33 — SpaceX, launch dominance, and the future of American industrial power

[Steven Simoni @StevenSimoni]

Next Friday,  May 29 from 5:30 PM - 8:30 PM in Austin:

Come out and enjoy pizzas and beers on us. We're always excited to talk to great engineers. RSVP NOW: https://t.co/8ZWsmH163F