FPDynamics Selected in Round 1 of DND's Drone Surge Challenge

The Department of National Defence's IDEaS program has selected FPDynamics' FP-X proposal as a Round 1 winner of Drone Surge, a national contest to scale tactical uncrewed aerial systems manufacturing for modern defence.

TORONTO, ON, December 2, 2025. FPDynamics today announced that it has been selected as a winner in Round 1 of Drone Surge: Scaling Tactical UAS Manufacturing for Modern Defence, a contest run by the Department of National Defence (DND) and the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) through the Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) program.

Drone Surge challenges Canadian innovators to deliver low-cost, attritable first-person-view (FPV) uncrewed aerial systems that can be manufactured at scale, strengthening Canada's domestic industrial base while enhancing operational effectiveness and interoperability for the Canadian Armed Forces. FPDynamics' Round 1 proposal, FP-X, was recognized among the country's most innovative attritable UAS solutions, earning a $35,000 prize and an invitation to Round 2 of the competition.

Winning Round 1 of Drone Surge validates what we've believed from day one: Canada can design and build tactical UAS at scale, on sovereign soil. We're honoured by DND's confidence, and we're already at work on Round 2.

FPDynamics Team

The Road Ahead

The Drone Surge contest unfolds across three competitive rounds, each narrowing the field toward production-ready Canadian UAS capability:

Beyond prize funding, the program gives IDEaS and the CAF direct visibility into Canadian low-cost UAS advancements: identifying supply-chain vulnerabilities, accelerating rapid deployment and iteration, and growing the domestic UAS industry and workforce. For FPDynamics, the contest is the launchpad for FP-X: a new and much simpler drone than the company's FP1 research platform, designed from the ground up to be low-cost and produced at high volume in Canada. Simplicity is the point, not the limit. FP-X is a modular platform that can be easily expanded with far more advanced sensors, autonomy, and payloads, and it inherits the proven flight stack and edge AI developed on the FP1.

About FPDynamics

FPDynamics is a Canadian aerospace technology company based in Toronto, building autonomous drone systems with AI-driven analytics for defence, construction, agriculture, and mining. From the FP1 autonomous platform to custom mission-specific systems, everything is engineered in-house, airframe to inference.

Drone Surge is an element of the Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) program of the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces. Details of the contest are available on the Government of Canada website.