From Battlefield to Business: The Rise of Collaborative Autonomous Drones: Geoff Hitchcock, Red Cat Holdings and Matt Vogt, Palladyne AI.

Geoff Hitchcock ia Chief Revenue Officer at Red Cat Holdings, and Matt Vogt ia Chief Revenue Officer at Palladyne AI.

Red Cat is a cutting-edge drone technology company delivering advanced hardware and integrated software solutions for military, government, and commercial applications. Palladyne AI develops next-generation artificial intelligence software that brings autonomy and smart collaboration to robotic platforms in defense and commercial sectors.

The two companies recently announced a significant testing milestone in their ongoing collaboration—the completion of an autonomous, cross-platform collaborative flight involving three diverse heterogeneous drones.  The system enabled real-time, distributed detection and tracking of multiple dynamic and static ground objects—including humans and vehicles—in different regions of interest, providing a single operator with comprehensive situational awareness. The two companies previously announced a successful two-drone flight operation in January 2025, and Palladyne AI announced a single-drone testing scenario in December 2024 to autonomously identify, prioritize, and track terrestrial targets.  The results represents significant progress in enabling multi-drone interoperability and autonomous collaboration for the defense sector.

Geoff is a 22-year veteran of USAF Special Operations with deep experience in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. He’s led operations and business development at top drone companies, including AeroVironment and Vantage Robotics, and now drives Red Cat’s growth as Chief Revenue Officer.

Matt began his career as a U.S. Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier attack pilot and later served as a Special Operations Forward Air Controller. After a decade leading business development at AeroVironment, he now oversees all revenue activities at Palladyne AI, focusing on AI-driven autonomy solutions for defense and commercial use.

In this episode of the Drone Radio Show, Matt and Geoff share how Red Cat and Palladyne AI’s partnership is unlocking true autonomous multi-drone collaboration, what this breakthrough means for modern military operations, and how they plan to scale the technology for larger swarms and real-world commercial applications.