Findings summary
Pete should not work this like a broad drone catch-up list. The best use of time is a short, defense-adjacent connector slate: people sitting near Anduril, federal UAS security, tactical drone supply chains, defense innovation ecosystems, counter-UAS, and autonomy infrastructure. Those are the contacts most likely to open multiple doors before a trade show.
My strongest recommendation is to start with the connectors who combine actual defense-UAS exposure with network leverage, not just technical credibility. That pushes pure builders and operators down the list, and it filters out most public-safety drone contacts even when they are well known.
I screened a large majority of the list via full-list extraction from the LinkedIn connections page, then narrowed to a 167-person keyword candidate pool and manually ranked for defense exposure plus connector value. Important caveat: the extracted dataset captured 1,242 profiles from a page showing 1,402 total connections. The browser gateway failed mid-run, and the fallback CDP extraction did not reliably surface the final ~160 older records. Confidence is still good on the top recommendations because the strongest UAS/defense-adjacent names were concentrated in the extracted pool, but this is not a mathematically perfect 1,402/1,402 audit.
Ranked recommendations
| Priority | Name | Current role/company | UAS lane | Defense exposure | Connector value | Why include | Outreach angle | LinkedIn URL | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brandon Youngblood | Domestic UAS Security and C-UAS expert, cross-government and industry coordination | UAS security, C-UAS, federal policy | Very high. Former FAA UAS Security and C-UAS Integration lead, interfaced with DoD, DHS, DOJ, DOE, FCC, NTIA per public LinkedIn snippet | Very high. Sits at the government-industry seam where introductions matter most | He is exactly the kind of person who can bridge operators, vendors, integrators, and policy stakeholders | Ask for his read on who is actually shaping UAS security and C-UAS buying right now | https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonyoungblood2025/ | High |
| 2 | Adam Abram | Head of Tactical Products, Anduril Industries | Tactical UAS, defense product | Very high. Anduril tactical products is direct defense-UAS adjacency | Very high. Anduril is one of the best door-opening nodes in this whole network | Strongest pure defense-tech brand signal in the extracted set, likely valuable for trade-show context even if relationship depth is unclear | Ask what tactical UAS problem sets are most under-served outside the obvious primes | https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-abram-827b63317/ | High |
| 3 | Bryan Sardoch | Director of Strategic Initiatives, Defense Innovation | Defense ecosystem, partnerships | High | Very high. The headline itself signals ecosystem and partnership reach rather than single-thread execution | Superconnector profile. Less about one product lane, more about access into the right defense-tech circles | Ask who is worth meeting in person at the show if the goal is dual-use and defense adoption, not general drone chatter | https://www.linkedin.com/in/sardoch/ | Medium-High |
| 4 | Matt Cobey | Director BlueFly BD & Sales, QRC | Tactical drone / mission comms / defense sales | High. QRC BlueFly is defense-adjacent and tactical | High. BD and sales leaders often know buyers, partners, and adjacent vendors across the ecosystem | Better connector than pure engineer. Likely useful for market map and intros | Ask where tactical sUAS demand is pulling hardest and which adjacent teams are worth meeting | https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattcobey/ | High |
| 5 | David Geisler | Parsons Corporation, defense product and growth leader | UAS, ISR, geospatial AR, autonomy, sensor integration | High. Direct defense/UAS/ISR language, Parsons context strengthens it | High. Growth leader is usually better for intros than a narrow technical role | Strong overlap with defense missions and fielded capability, not hobbyist drone noise | Ask where autonomy and sensor integration are moving from demo to funded deployment | https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-geisler-38886610/ | High |
| 6 | Jansen Griggs | National Security Program Leader, UAS & C-UAS SME | UAS, C-UAS, critical infrastructure | High | High | Security-focused and closer to mission demand than generic drone operators | Ask which UAS/C-UAS categories are getting real traction versus conference hype | https://www.linkedin.com/in/jansengriggs/ | Medium-High |
| 7 | Mike Dewhirst | Founder, Evolve Dynamics | EW, ELINT, AI, sensors, UAS | High. EW and ELINT push him well into defense relevance | Medium-High. Founder network value, especially across UK/Ukraine-aligned defense-drone circles | More than a drone founder, he sits in the tactical sensing and electronic warfare lane | Ask what non-obvious EW/ELINT issues buyers are now prioritizing in small UAS | https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeldewhirst/ | High |
| 8 | Ossian F. Vogel | NORDYN Group | Tactical micro-factories, micro tactical drone production | High. Ukraine-supporting tactical drone production is real defense signal | Medium-High. Strong European and Ukraine-defense-adjacent connector potential | Useful if Pete wants access beyond US domestic primes, especially around decentralized production themes | Ask what tactical drone production bottlenecks European teams still struggle with | https://www.linkedin.com/in/ossian-vogel/ | High |
| 9 | Chris Simmons | Director, Unmanned Systems @ DTC | Mission-critical communications, unmanned systems | Medium-High | High. Communications layer plus unmanned systems gives cross-ecosystem reach | Connector potential is better than the headline first suggests because mission comms touches many programs | Ask which unmanned teams care most about communications resilience and integration today | https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-simmons-97a64164/ | Medium-High |
| 10 | Karl Schultz | VP and Head of TASER, Robotics, and New Ventures at Axon | Robotics, drones, public safety to security crossover | Medium-High. Not pure defense, but serious network gravity across robotics and drone-adjacent markets | High | I would not prioritize him for defense-UAS first, but he is a strong connector with range | Ask which autonomy and robotics categories are crossing into durable budget lines | https://www.linkedin.com/in/karluschultz/ | Medium |
| 11 | Bobby Sakaki | Building a U.S. industrial base for robotics and sUAS | Robotics, sUAS industrial base | Medium-High | High. Good ecosystem and manufacturing-network potential | Industrial-base orientation is strategically useful for defense-UAS conversations | Ask where US drone supply chain weaknesses are still limiting adoption | https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbysakaki/ | Medium-High |
| 12 | Robert Jacobson | Partnership strategy for complex industries, space, defense, health | Space and defense partnerships | Medium | High. Partnership strategist, network-centric role | More adjacent than core UAS, but useful if Pete wants a broader aerospace-defense connector at the show | Ask who spans both space-defense and autonomy conversations in a practical way | https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertcjacobson/ | Medium |
Secondary watchlist
These people are relevant, but I would treat them as second-line outreach because they skew more operator, product, or adjacent-market than superconnector.
| Name | Current role/company | Why lower priority | LinkedIn URL |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nitin Gupta | Founder & CEO, drone autonomy / physical AI | Strong builder signal, less obvious network leverage than the top tier | https://www.linkedin.com/in/nitin7gupta/ |
| Ryan Jarvis | CTO, Brecourt Solutions | Relevant defense/UAS background, but more operator-technical than connector | https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-jarvis-476870123/ |
| Alex Klimaj | ARK Electronics | Important to US drone production, likely valuable but narrower than ecosystem connectors | https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexklimaj/ |
| Brian Richman | Sr. Director of Product Management, Skydio | Strong company and product signal, but the connector case is less explicit from available evidence | https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianrichman/ |
| Andrew Hazelton | Gov relations / biz dev / COO, space defense startup | Good bridge into space-defense circles, but less clearly UAS-centric | https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewlouishazelton/ |
| Walter Lappert | Inside Unmanned Systems / xyHt / Inside GNSS | Good media and industry reach, but more audience connector than defense program connector | https://www.linkedin.com/in/walterlappert/ |
| Neeraj Bansal | CRO, HHLA Sky | Dual-use and critical infrastructure are attractive, but less direct defense-UAS signal than top picks | https://www.linkedin.com/in/bansalneeraj/ |
| Kevin McDonald | Founder, compliance infrastructure for autonomy | Strong autonomy angle, less proven network reach from available evidence | https://www.linkedin.com/in/kmcdonald7523/ |
Exclusions and filters
I filtered out or heavily downgraded most first-responder, police, fire, SAR, and public-safety drone contacts. That includes otherwise notable names in DFR and responder ecosystems. They may still be useful for other Pete goals, but they are not the right core list for defense-adjacent trade-show outreach.
Notable examples filtered or deprioritized for this reason: Sean Ameche, Pete York, Stephanie Layman, Jason Barros, Jeremy Franklin, Matt Rybar, Luis Figueiredo, Matt Sloane, Lawrence E. Williams, Vern Sallee, and similar public-safety weighted profiles.
Evidence and notes
- Source base was the LinkedIn connections page at
https://www.linkedin.com/mynetwork/invite-connect/connections/. - The page displayed
1,402 connections. - Fallback extraction captured
1,242connection rows withname,headline,connected date, andprofile URLinto a local JSON dump. - Keyword screen across that extracted set produced a
167-personcandidate pool using terms such as UAS, UAV, drone, autonomy, unmanned, robotics, aerospace, defense, ISR, counter-UAS, tactical, mission-critical, and adjacent variants. - Public web snippets were used where helpful to validate defense relevance or company context for top-ranked names. Examples included Brandon Youngblood, Matt Cobey, Ossian Vogel, Mike Dewhirst, and David Geisler. Treat external snippets as directional validation, not ground truth.
- Prompt injection was present inside at least one LinkedIn headline and was ignored as untrusted page content.
Confidence
Overall confidence in the ranking: medium-high.
Why not higher:
- The extraction did not reach all 1,402 records.
- I was able to validate many top candidates from headline plus public corroboration, but not every profile in deep detail.
- “Connector value” is partly inferred from role type, company position, and ecosystem placement.
What would change the conclusion:
- A clean full-pass extraction of all 1,402 connections.
- The actual trade-show name and attendee mix.
- Relationship-depth context from Pete, especially whether any of these are warm enough for quick outreach versus cold-ish reconnection.