Startups Gravitate to a New, Pentagon-backed Battery to Bypass China's Chokehold
After Beijing blocked battery sales to Skydio in October 2024 following US approval of attack-drone sales to Taiwan, Western suppliers are rallying around a new SAE International drone-battery standard released in July — shifting from China’s cylindrical 2170 cells to a flat pouch form factor sized like a six-pack of 2170s. Lisa King (Leap Manufacturing; SAE committee vice chair) drove the effort after talks with Skydio and a Pentagon official; DoD backing makes adoption likely for the Drone Dominance Program. Adopters named: South Korea’s BEI (lithium-metal, already shipping one conforming pack); Amprius Technologies (CEO Tom Stepien) targeting a Q4 ultrahigh-energy silicon pack at 500 Wh/kg on the standard cell; EnPower (Indiana, CEO Adrian Yao) retooling for >2 million pouch cells/year from mid-2027, with no firm contracts yet. Retooling cell dimensions can mean ~$30M in new equipment. King: ~90% of power cells are made in China.
Why it matters
Defense-tech and deep-tech supply-chain signal for Dealroom: Skydio’s China exposure, a DoD-aligned standard that could unlock Western battery startups (Amprius, EnPower, BEI), and a taxonomy shift from commodity 2170s to standardised pouch cells for drones and potentially robots.
