Red Cat, Ondas Miss the Cut in Pentagon's Latest Drone Dominance Round (CORRECTED)

Editor’s Note: This article has been corrected to accurately describe the Ondas Holdings subsidiaries’ participation in the Gauntlet program. The Pentagon’s Gauntlet II results are posted, and the scoreboard belongs almost entirely to private companies. RCAT stock is moving lower. See the real-time price action here. Ten finalists were picked across two mission areas after August testing at Fort Carson, Colorado, where drones flew find-fix-finish missions at 15-kilometer stand-off ranges and inside confined spaces, some of it repeated at night and against counter-drone systems. Perennial Autonomy topped the Deep Strike competition with 80.1 points, ahead of Hyperscale at 70.9, Neros at 69.8, Skycutter at 66.6 and Swarm Defense Technologies at 66.0. Neros won the Close Quarters Battle with 88.1, followed by ORQA US, XTEND Reality, Vector and ModalAI. Order quantities stay blank until contract award, and the program warns awards are not guaranteed. None of the ten leaders trade publicly, but traders can use read-throughs instead of pure plays. Read Also: Jim Cramer Flags 'Boatload' of Bullish Option Buying in Micron, SanDisk, Intel The Losers are the Tradable Names Teal Drones Inc., the subsidiary of Red Cat Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:RCAT), competed in the Close Quarters competition of the Gauntlet II and did not place in the top five. American Robotics, owned by Ondas Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:ONDS), participated in Phase 1 of Drone Dominance, but was not one of the 19 companies in the Gauntlet II event. Both companies remain eligible for future Gauntlets, per the program’s regulations. Red Cat shares changed hands at $6.88, down 3.10% Friday morning and 24.4% since Aug. 25, just before Gauntlet II testing wrapped. The stock sits 63.4% below its 52-week high, with a market value of $1.05 billion, according Benzinga Pro data. Ondas traded at $7.30, off 1.26% on the day and 11.4% over the same stretch, valuing the company at $4.16 billion. See More: Top Momentum Stocks Where the Upside Hides Component suppliers offer the cleanest exposure to winners nobody can buy. Unusual Machines, Inc. (AMEX:UMAC) makes drone parts and counts Donald Trump Jr. as an advisor. The Trump administration has held talks about funding both Unusual Machines and Sequoia Capital-backed Neros, with proposals involving a mix of debt and equity that could hand the government ownership stakes. Shares of UMAC traded at $23.11 on Friday, down 3.25%. Larger defense names moved with the sector during May’s funding headlines, including Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:KTOS) and AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVAV), which rose alongside peers in the Spring, should also be monitored this round. Read Also: These 10 Stocks Are Squeeze Candidates Waiting to Happen Photo: Pavlow / Shutterstock