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Ondas vs. Draganfly: Which Drone Stock Is the Better Pick for Now?
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Key Takeaways
Ondas pivots to autonomous defense systems, adding five acquisitions in Q1 and a sixth deal last week.
Ondas guides 2026 revenues at least $390M and cites $457M backlog, but operating loss widened in Q1.
Draganfly Q1 revenues up 49.4% on higher military orders; C-UAS demand and new partnerships bode well.
The global drone industry is rapidly evolving into one of the most strategically important sectors in defense, surveillance, logistics and autonomous warfare.
According to a report from Mordor Intelligence, the global drone tech market is expected to witness a CAGR of 9.34% from 2026 to 2031. The convergence of drones with artificial intelligence, cloud computing and edge processing is further driving adoption across verticals.
Ondas Inc. (ONDS - Free Report) and Draganfly (DPRO - Free Report) both operate in the defense and unmanned systems domain and are positioning themselves as strategic partners to military and government agencies. However, despite operating in the same space, these companies have very different positions in terms of scale and maturity.
For investors seeking exposure to this theme, the key question remains: which stock offers the better opportunity right now?
Let us do a deep dive into the companies’ competitive dynamics to understand which is better positioned in the industry.
ONDS: Building a “Systems of Systems” Platform
Ondas entered 2026 following a transformational year marked by a pivot to autonomous systems, aggressive portfolio expansion and platform scaling. At the core of this transformation is Ondas Autonomous Systems (“OAS”), which has quickly become a multi-domain autonomy platform spanning Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance or ISR, Counter-UAS, loitering munitions/strike systems, unmanned ground vehicles and stratospheric sensing via World View acquisition.
The company has accomplished this broad portfolio through focused M&A activity. In the first quarter alone, the company completed five acquisitions (World View, INDO Earth, Rotron Aerospace, Bird Aero and Mistral Inc). Last week, ONDS announced an agreement to acquire Omnisys Ltd., adding AI-powered battlefield orchestration software to its autonomous defense systems portfolio. In the past year, it has acquired Sentrycs, Apeiro Motion and Zickel, among others. Ondas now operates in more than 45 countries with over 1,000 employees globally.
The company has also accumulated a backlog exceeding $450 million following the acquisitions of World View and Mistral. Management increased 2026 revenue guidance to at least $390 million.
Despite the impressive growth story, Ondas carries substantial risks. Extensive M&A amplifies risks, as so many acquisitions in such a short period can create integration overload and execution risks, as achieving targets depends on timely integration and conversion of backlog into revenues.
Profitability remains concerning. Ondas faces rising operating costs as it invests in personnel and infrastructure capabilities to capture additional market opportunities. First-quarter operating expenses rose substantially to $67 million from $11.8 million reported in the prior-year quarter. This led to an operating loss of $42.7 million, which widened from $10.3 million year over year. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA loss was $10.9 million, up from a loss of $7.5 million in the first quarter of 2025.
Ondas Holdings Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
Amid rising costs, management expects adjusted EBITDA losses to stay elevated in the second quarter of 2026, likely marking the peak loss period. Beyond that, ONDS expects improvement throughout the year, driven by higher revenues, gross profit and operational scale.
Notably, management pulled forward the OAS EBITDA profitability target to the first quarter of 2027 — roughly six months ahead of the earlier target. Expectations for company-wide adjusted EBITDA profitability were unchanged, with the target being the first quarter of 2028. The key factor driving this is the company’s progress at the product level.
Nonetheless, the path to profitability remains heavily dependent on flawless execution. Any delays in integration and order conversion could push the profitability timeline further out. Increasing competition in the already crowded drone space is another headwind.
DPRO: Rising Product Sales
Draganfly is a Canada-based drone solutions and systems developer. The company’s drones include the Commander 3XL, Heavy Lift Drone, Commander 2 and Draganfly Medical Response Drone and the Apex drone aimed at ISR, marketed for the military and public safety.
DPRO has 5-plus drone systems that are all NDAA-compliant. As the United States and NATO aggressively eliminate non-compliant Chinese systems from critical infrastructure, this compliance advantage becomes a moat. DPRO recently introduced the Draganfly Blitz platform to capture demand for NDAA-compliant integrated gimbal systems. Draganfly Blitz payload platform comprises stabilized gimbal systems and electro-optical and infrared payloads.
First-quarter 2026 revenues came in at $2.3 million, up 49.4% year over year, driven by momentum in product sales.
Increasing presence in the military vertical is a major tailwind. At the beginning of the first quarter, DPRO secured orders for FPV drones from the U.S. Army and for Commander 3 XLs from international military customers. It was recently selected by the Department of War, along with F4 Defense International, to develop a multi-layered, modular and rapidly deployable counter-UAS (C-UAS) system.
Draganfly is also building strong strategic partnerships. The alliance with Prime Global Ordnance positions the company as a supplier in the growing military drone and munition ecosystem supporting Ukraine. Meanwhile, the partnership with Babcock strengthens access to Indo-Pacific defense markets.
On the acquisition front, DPRO signed an agreement to purchase all assets of Skip Dynamix’s drone technology business. This acquisition is a strategic fit amid increasing investments in low-cost autonomous aerial systems designed for electronic warfare resilience, ISR, swarm deployment and one-way operations.
However, unlike Ondas, Draganfly is pursuing a more measured and focused strategy. Management is of the idea that future military operations will require fleets of interoperable drones rather than isolated single-use platforms. Draganfly cites that its core advantage lies in its interoperability and modularity.
Another key strength is balance-sheet flexibility. A company with just more than $2 million in quarterly revenues, C$147 million in cash balance and minimal debt on the balance sheet at the end of the first quarter, provides ample flexibility.
Nonetheless, DPRO is not without risks. At just C$2.3 million in quarterly revenues, it remains tiny relative to larger defense drone competitors. Profitability also remains a challenge. Gross margin shrank to 15% from 20% reported in the prior-year quarter, owing to an unfavorable sales mix and a one-time, non-cash write-down of inventory. Intense competition from both established defense contractors and emerging drone startups is a concern, given its small scale.
Price Performance & Valuation for ONDS & DPRO
Year to date, both ONDS and DPRO have registered losses of 7.1%.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
In terms of the forward 12-month price-to-sales ratio, ONDS trades at 8.7X, higher than DPRO’s 1.21X.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
How Do Estimates Compare for ONDS & DPRO?
For ONDS, earnings estimates for the current year have unchanged in the past 60 days.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
For DPRO, earnings estimates have been unchanged over the same time frame.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
ONDS or DPRO: Which Is a Better Pick?
Both stocks carry a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) at present.
While Ondas offers ambitious scale and backlog potential, Draganfly’s focused execution, lower valuation and expanding defense partnerships make it the relatively more attractive risk-reward opportunity in the drone space today.
View the Zacks #1 Rank List
Image: Bigstock
Ondas vs. Draganfly: Which Drone Stock Is the Better Pick for Now?
Key Takeaways
The global drone industry is rapidly evolving into one of the most strategically important sectors in defense, surveillance, logistics and autonomous warfare.
According to a report from Mordor Intelligence, the global drone tech market is expected to witness a CAGR of 9.34% from 2026 to 2031. The convergence of drones with artificial intelligence, cloud computing and edge processing is further driving adoption across verticals.
Ondas Inc. (ONDS - Free Report) and Draganfly (DPRO - Free Report) both operate in the defense and unmanned systems domain and are positioning themselves as strategic partners to military and government agencies. However, despite operating in the same space, these companies have very different positions in terms of scale and maturity.
For investors seeking exposure to this theme, the key question remains: which stock offers the better opportunity right now?
Let us do a deep dive into the companies’ competitive dynamics to understand which is better positioned in the industry.
ONDS: Building a “Systems of Systems” Platform
Ondas entered 2026 following a transformational year marked by a pivot to autonomous systems, aggressive portfolio expansion and platform scaling. At the core of this transformation is Ondas Autonomous Systems (“OAS”), which has quickly become a multi-domain autonomy platform spanning Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance or ISR, Counter-UAS, loitering munitions/strike systems, unmanned ground vehicles and stratospheric sensing via World View acquisition.
The company has accomplished this broad portfolio through focused M&A activity. In the first quarter alone, the company completed five acquisitions (World View, INDO Earth, Rotron Aerospace, Bird Aero and Mistral Inc). Last week, ONDS announced an agreement to acquire Omnisys Ltd., adding AI-powered battlefield orchestration software to its autonomous defense systems portfolio. In the past year, it has acquired Sentrycs, Apeiro Motion and Zickel, among others. Ondas now operates in more than 45 countries with over 1,000 employees globally.
The company has also accumulated a backlog exceeding $450 million following the acquisitions of World View and Mistral. Management increased 2026 revenue guidance to at least $390 million.
Despite the impressive growth story, Ondas carries substantial risks. Extensive M&A amplifies risks, as so many acquisitions in such a short period can create integration overload and execution risks, as achieving targets depends on timely integration and conversion of backlog into revenues.
Profitability remains concerning. Ondas faces rising operating costs as it invests in personnel and infrastructure capabilities to capture additional market opportunities. First-quarter operating expenses rose substantially to $67 million from $11.8 million reported in the prior-year quarter. This led to an operating loss of $42.7 million, which widened from $10.3 million year over year. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA loss was $10.9 million, up from a loss of $7.5 million in the first quarter of 2025.
Ondas Holdings Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
Ondas Holdings Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Ondas Holdings Inc. Quote
Amid rising costs, management expects adjusted EBITDA losses to stay elevated in the second quarter of 2026, likely marking the peak loss period. Beyond that, ONDS expects improvement throughout the year, driven by higher revenues, gross profit and operational scale.
Notably, management pulled forward the OAS EBITDA profitability target to the first quarter of 2027 — roughly six months ahead of the earlier target. Expectations for company-wide adjusted EBITDA profitability were unchanged, with the target being the first quarter of 2028. The key factor driving this is the company’s progress at the product level.
Nonetheless, the path to profitability remains heavily dependent on flawless execution. Any delays in integration and order conversion could push the profitability timeline further out. Increasing competition in the already crowded drone space is another headwind.
DPRO: Rising Product Sales
Draganfly is a Canada-based drone solutions and systems developer. The company’s drones include the Commander 3XL, Heavy Lift Drone, Commander 2 and Draganfly Medical Response Drone and the Apex drone aimed at ISR, marketed for the military and public safety.
DPRO has 5-plus drone systems that are all NDAA-compliant. As the United States and NATO aggressively eliminate non-compliant Chinese systems from critical infrastructure, this compliance advantage becomes a moat. DPRO recently introduced the Draganfly Blitz platform to capture demand for NDAA-compliant integrated gimbal systems. Draganfly Blitz payload platform comprises stabilized gimbal systems and electro-optical and infrared payloads.
First-quarter 2026 revenues came in at $2.3 million, up 49.4% year over year, driven by momentum in product sales.
Increasing presence in the military vertical is a major tailwind. At the beginning of the first quarter, DPRO secured orders for FPV drones from the U.S. Army and for Commander 3 XLs from international military customers. It was recently selected by the Department of War, along with F4 Defense International, to develop a multi-layered, modular and rapidly deployable counter-UAS (C-UAS) system.
Draganfly is also building strong strategic partnerships. The alliance with Prime Global Ordnance positions the company as a supplier in the growing military drone and munition ecosystem supporting Ukraine. Meanwhile, the partnership with Babcock strengthens access to Indo-Pacific defense markets.
Draganfly Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
Draganfly Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Draganfly Inc. Quote
On the acquisition front, DPRO signed an agreement to purchase all assets of Skip Dynamix’s drone technology business. This acquisition is a strategic fit amid increasing investments in low-cost autonomous aerial systems designed for electronic warfare resilience, ISR, swarm deployment and one-way operations.
However, unlike Ondas, Draganfly is pursuing a more measured and focused strategy. Management is of the idea that future military operations will require fleets of interoperable drones rather than isolated single-use platforms. Draganfly cites that its core advantage lies in its interoperability and modularity.
Another key strength is balance-sheet flexibility. A company with just more than $2 million in quarterly revenues, C$147 million in cash balance and minimal debt on the balance sheet at the end of the first quarter, provides ample flexibility.
Nonetheless, DPRO is not without risks. At just C$2.3 million in quarterly revenues, it remains tiny relative to larger defense drone competitors. Profitability also remains a challenge. Gross margin shrank to 15% from 20% reported in the prior-year quarter, owing to an unfavorable sales mix and a one-time, non-cash write-down of inventory. Intense competition from both established defense contractors and emerging drone startups is a concern, given its small scale.
Price Performance & Valuation for ONDS & DPRO
Year to date, both ONDS and DPRO have registered losses of 7.1%.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
In terms of the forward 12-month price-to-sales ratio, ONDS trades at 8.7X, higher than DPRO’s 1.21X.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
How Do Estimates Compare for ONDS & DPRO?
For ONDS, earnings estimates for the current year have unchanged in the past 60 days.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
For DPRO, earnings estimates have been unchanged over the same time frame.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
ONDS or DPRO: Which Is a Better Pick?
Both stocks carry a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) at present.
While Ondas offers ambitious scale and backlog potential, Draganfly’s focused execution, lower valuation and expanding defense partnerships make it the relatively more attractive risk-reward opportunity in the drone space today.
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.