One Autonomy Stack Many Buyers
Scott Sanders, Chief Growth Officer at Forterra, on autonomy for every vehicle
The key to avoiding a procurement stall in defense is to sell one repeatable product into many small budgets, not to wait for one giant program to save the company. Forterra’s point is that the DoD does not buy like one customer. It buys through many program offices, each with its own budget, contracting preferences, and timeline. A company that can adapt the same autonomy kit to several missions, and even to commercial buyers, can keep revenue moving while larger programs take shape.
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Forterra describes the DoD as a set of micro markets. That means a startup can string together pilots, field tests, and smaller production deals across different offices, then use those to bridge the long gap before a formal program of record arrives.
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This only works if the product is already real and reusable. Forterra says it won four programs of record off the same Generation 3 autonomy kit, and can put that same core stack on military vehicles or commercial yard trucks without rebuilding the system each time.
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The contrast is a startup built around one narrow contract path, like SBIRs or one custom services deal. Scott Sanders argues those routes often pull engineering into one off work, slow productization, and make scale harder, even if they create short term revenue.
Going forward, the winners in defense autonomy are likely to look less like one program vendors and more like multi market product companies. The more a company can ship the same hardware and software stack across services, vehicle types, and adjacent commercial workflows, the less exposed it is to any single budget cycle and the more credible it becomes as a long term prime.