AMERICAN DRONES.BUILT AT SCALE.
Built in California.Engineered for the battlefield of tomorrow.
California Drone Systems was founded to develop and manufacture next-generation unmanned systems at scale in America.
Founder & CEO
STEVERIABOV
Ukrainian-American entrepreneur based in Silicon Valley. Originally from Luhansk, Ukraine — a region that has seen the realities of modern drone warfare firsthand.
Built and scaled companies across the U.S. construction and real estate industries before turning his focus to defense technology. He founded California Drone Systems to do something specific: bring Ukraine's battlefield-proven drone innovation together with American engineering talent, capital, and manufacturing infrastructure.
The result is a company built at the intersection of urgency and scale — one that understands both what the battlefield demands and what it takes to build an American industrial company that can meet that demand.
Mission
BUILD FASTER.LEARN FASTER.DEPLOY BETTER.
Modern conflicts evolve in months, weeks and sometimes days. CDS was created around a simple principle: unmanned systems must evolve just as quickly. We combine rapid development, field feedback, modern manufacturing and continuous engineering improvement.
RAPID DEVELOPMENT
Built around short development cycles from concept to deployable systems.
FIELD-DRIVEN ENGINEERING
Products shaped by real operational requirements.
SCALABLE AMERICAN MANUFACTURING
Built for volume from the first prototype.
Why CDS
A NEW MODEL FOR DEFENSE MANUFACTURING
SPEED
Short development cycles and rapid product iteration.
SCALE
Designed from the beginning for high-volume manufacturing.
ADAPTABILITY
Products evolve continuously around changing mission requirements.
AMERICAN PRODUCTION
Engineering and manufacturing capability developed in the United States.
Development
ENGINEERING AT THE SPEED OF CHANGE
Our development model is designed around rapid cycles of design, testing, evaluation, and improvement.
Manufacturing
BUILT IN CALIFORNIA.BUILT FOR SCALE.
CDS is developing an American manufacturing platform designed to move unmanned systems from prototype to production quickly. Our objective: Build one of the most capable unmanned systems manufacturing companies in the United States.
CALIFORNIA
ENGINEERING & OPERATIONS
USA
MANUFACTURING
24/7
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT MINDSET
THE NEXT GREAT DEFENSE COMPANIESARE BEING BUILT NOW.
The nature of warfare is changing.
Small, intelligent and adaptable unmanned systems are becoming a defining technology of modern defense. California Drone Systems exists to help build the American industrial capability required for that future.
Partnerships
BUILD WITH CDS
Careers
HELP BUILD THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN DEFENSE
We are building a team of engineers, operators, manufacturers and unconventional problem solvers.