Source: https://x.com/KULRTech/status/2106096922750591085

Author: https://x.com/KULRTech

On #NationalManufacturingDay, KULR is scaling what matters: U.S. production capacity, customer deliveries, and key programs.

Our DeptofWar's Drone Dominance production orders support the ramp of Forge 2 in Houston as we expand domestic battery manufacturing for defense and autonomous systems.

Mitchell Miller, KULR VP of Operations, noted “KULR Operations is ramping production at Forge 2 to meet the demands of DIU_x's Drone Dominance Program, and it's our team on the floor making it happen. Celebrating the people and the capability behind American battery manufacturing this Manufacturing Day.” Build more batteries. Sell more batteries.

#DroneDominance

#UAS

#MadeInAmerica

Vector Defense is a Bluffdale, Utah company that builds attritable FPV drones, the Hammer and the Dagger, plus the controllers and training that go with them. It started as a drone-training outfit, moved into manufacturing after putting its headquarters in Utah, and in September was selected for orders of up to 5,000 systems in the Department of War’s Drone Dominance Program.

KULR, over the same stretch, booked unnamed defense-drone battery orders and never named the buyer. Vector has not named its battery supplier. Lay the two calendars on top of each other and the fit is hard to miss. Neither company has said the name.

Who started it

Andy Yakulis is a West Point graduate and a former Army Special Operations commander and helicopter pilot. He spent 18 years in uniform, did a Sloan Fellowship at Stanford, and left just short of retirement to start Vector in 2024. His reason, in short: one-way attack drones were already being used in volume overseas, and U.S. procurement was too slow. Deseret later quoted him that the original model was training-first. “This is how we got our start — as a drone training company.”
https://www.tfvector.com/company
https://www.deseret.com/utah/2026/04/28/utah-company-vector-helping-america-keep-pace-in-military-drone-tech-race/

April 22–23, 2024. 47G welcomes KULR onto its Board of Governors. Vector is not on the SAM record yet.

May 10, 2024. Business start date on the SAM registration for Vector Defense, Inc., UEI FKP5TVBN54M8, CAGE 9YTR0, filed July 23, 2024. Delaware corporation, veteran-owned, www.tfvector.com, Yakulis listed among the officers. A later filing has floated an April conversation about a co-founder coming aboard. The date the company reported is May 10.
https://opengovus.com/sam-entity/FKP5TVBN54M8

December 2, 2024. Yakulis publicly names George Matus CTO and co-founder. Vector is still mostly in stealth.

February 9, 2025. KULR is still on the 47G member list. Wayback capture of the members page: https://www.47g.org/members/

March 28, 2025. KULR is gone from that same members page. The drop falls between the February 9 capture and the March 28 capture. No release explains the removal. Vector is not on the list on March 28 or April 30. KULR is still missing on the April 30, June 23, July 16, and August 6 captures.

July 16, 2025. First Vector name on the 47G member list. It is listed as Vector (Aerospace, Defense, Manufacturing). https://www.47g.org/members/vector/ Vector is not shown on the June 23 capture.

July 2025. Vector launches the Hammer. The same month, KULR begins KULR ONE Air sample shipments. The K1A launch release is August 20, 2025. No defense prime is named. Vector Defense has said the headquarters move into the Salt Lake area, and the shift from training outfit to manufacturer, came in mid-2025.

July 31, 2025. First time “Yakulis” appears on 47g.org, as a panelist with 47G’s Aaron Starks and Pelion’s Ben Lambert.
https://www.47g.org/events/utahs-strategic-investment-in-autonomous-aviation

September 3, 2025. Vector closes a $61 million Series A, led by Pelion, to scale Hammer production in Utah. About 150 people. The plant is described as built for tens of thousands of units.
https://www.techbuzznews.com/vector-secures-61-m-series-a/

About October 2025. Multi-year, multimillion-dollar SOCOM contract. Yakulis says calling 47G was one of the first things he did after establishing the Utah headquarters, and that manufacturing is NDAA-compliant.

February 16, 2026. On Shield Capital’s Episode 19, Yakulis says Vector is ready to announce two domestic partners, one “a battery company, actually, that was making batteries for a different purpose, and we brought them into the drone industry.” He does not name it. KULR’s prior business was space and thermal batteries.
https://shieldcap.com/episodes/vector

March 3, 2026. $20 million J.P. Morgan loan to expand the Utah plant and the U.S. supply chain.

April 21, 2026. Phase II request for solutions. Drone Dominance is a $1.1 billion, four-phase program, with a preference for systems sourced and manufactured primarily in the United States.
https://drone-dominance.io/announcements.html

→April 28, 2026. Deseret publishes photograph 📷 of a Vector employee taken Friday, April 24, 2026 at the Bluffdale plant holding a Hammer drone. The top-mounted battery pack shows a 'K' and the left stroke of a 'U' under the strap, in the position and weight of the KULR wordmark. The April 28 story does not name a battery supplier.
https://www.deseret.com/utah/2026/04/28/utah-company-vector-helping-america-keep-pace-in-military-drone-tech-race/

→April 29, 2026. Next business day. 👀 KULR announces nearly $1 million in initial K1A orders from “a U.S. defense technology company and manufacturer of unmanned aerial systems specializing in first-person view drones for military use.” That customer “was also involved in Drone Dominance.” Orders from this customer expected to exceed $5 million, all shipped before the end of 2026. Customer not named.
https://kulr.ai/kulr-secures-initial-defense-drone-battery-orders-with-customer-opportunity-exceeding-5-million-for-2026/

June 2, 2026. KULR announces a prototype agreement with a U.S. defense-drone manufacturer for packs on UAVs and handheld controllers. Also unnamed. Vector later wins both air vehicles and hand-controller hardware. The release does not connect them.
https://kulr.ai/kulr-secures-prototype-battery-development-contract-with-u-s-based-military-drone-manufacturer/

June 8–19, 2026. Qualifier at Camp Grayling, 49 companies. On July 1, Vector is one of 19 advanced to Gauntlet II, which required a paid delivery of 120 drones with lethality payloads in about five weeks. Gauntlet II ran at Fort Carson in August. Vector finished fourth in close-quarters battle at 78.2.
https://drone-dominance.io/announcements.html

September 15, 2026. Yakulis’s bio appears on the 47G board section, two days before the production release.
https://www.47g.org/board-of-directors/andy-yakulis

September 17, 2026. Vector says it has been selected for orders of up to 5,000 systems inside Drone Dominance’s 60,000-unit allocation, plus HV-ESAD and drone hand controllers. Yakulis: investing in “the supply chain, manufacturing, and industrial capacity,” with “compliant component availability.” No battery vendor.
https://www.techbuzznews.com/vector-wins-5000-drone-order/

October 1, 2026. KULR announces more than $1 million in production orders supporting Drone Dominance. Deliveries begin in October and are expected complete by the end of November. Customer unnamed.
https://kulr.ai/kulr-secures-over-1-million-in-battery-purchase-orders-supporting-drone-dominance-program/

The read

Vector has executed: a May 2024 SAM start, a SOCOM contract, a $61 million Series A, a $20 million manufacturing loan, and a Drone Dominance production slot. Nothing here is a claim about how the company was formed.

The coincidence is the supplier. 47G directory handoff, an unnamed domestic battery partner brought in from another industry, a KULR-style mark on a Hammer in Bluffdale, and a K1A order from an unnamed FPV prime the next business day. Neither company has confirmed the other.