Glen Lynch on Volatus’ $9B defense pivot and the "Many-to-One" BVLOS drone operation’s future 

At our annual, invitation-only, C-level event, Aerial Cities 2025 in Dublin, the conversation in the City Hall was no longer about "if" drones would scale, but "how" they will be funded and manufactured. In an exclusive interview with Marta Shavgulidze, Junior Business Development Manager of Murzilli Consulting, Glen Lynch, CEO of Volatus Aerospace, provided the definitive roadmap for the industry’s next 24 months.

Volatus enters 2026 as a significantly different entity than a year ago. Following a record Q3 2025 where revenue surged 60% year-over-year to $10.6M CAD, driven by a 427% explosion in equipment sales, the company is no longer just a service provider, but a cornerstone of Canada’s sovereign defense base.

The Mirabel strategy 

The most significant takeaway from the interview was the $9 billion "re-arming" of the Canadian Armed Forces. Glen noted a critical geopolitical shift: currently, 75 cents of every defense dollar spent by Canada leaves the country.

To address this challenge, Volatus is strategically anchoring its future at the Mirabel Hub in Quebec, establishing a strong domestic foundation for advanced aerospace and defense manufacturing.

The 200,000-square-foot, secure facility has a clearly defined mission: the serial production of Made-in-Canada, NATO-aligned unmanned platforms, including the heavy-lift Condor XL and newly acquired long-endurance UAS technologies.

Beyond expanding production capacity, the Mirabel Hub is designed to deliver measurable economic impact by ensuring that upcoming 2026 defense procurement investments reinforce Canada’s domestic supply chain, support high-value local manufacturing, and reduce reliance on off-shoring critical capabilities.

The "Many-to-One" efficiency breakthrough 

Glen challenged the audience to look past industry “vapourware” and focus instead on deployable capability, pointing to Volatus’ recently scaled-up BVLOS drone approvals as the real driver of profitability.

In an industry where labor represents the single highest operating cost, Volatus has fundamentally redefined unit economics by moving away from the traditional model of five trucks, ten personnel, and five drones. Its 2026 operating vision replaces this with a dramatically leaner structure: one truck, one operator, and five drones, delivering an estimated 70% reduction in field personnel costs.

As Glen emphasized, this shift is not aspirational but grounded in reality: “We don’t chase what we would like to do; we chase the combination of what the technology allows and what the regulation enables today.”

Global growth: Africa, SE Asia, and the USA 

On the global front, Volatus is pursuing a deliberately phased growth strategy that balances domestic priorities with targeted international expansion. While Canada remains the primary focus for defense manufacturing, Glen outlined a clear roadmap for select global markets.

Africa is positioned as a major growth engine, particularly in the cargo segment, where regulatory frameworks are already supportive of large-scale drone logistics and operational deployment.

Southeast Asia has been identified as an emerging opportunity for industrial drone applications, driven by infrastructure, energy, and monitoring needs across the region.

The United States continues to be a strategically important market, although Glen described it as being in a “state of change,” making it a secondary focus in the near term compared to the more immediate and tangible defense opportunities currently available in Canada.

Volatus Aerospace’s 2025-2026 high-performance metrics 

The 2025–2026 high-performance metrics underline Volatus Aerospace’s transition from growth-stage operator to scaled, execution-ready aerospace partner. Strong revenue momentum, exceeding $10.6 million per quarter with 60% year-over-year growth, reflects disciplined commercialization rather than speculative expansion.

The defense pipeline is anchored by a $9 million NATO contract, with an initial $4.5 million tranche scheduled for Q1 2026, signalling growing trust from allied institutions.

Operational maturity is demonstrated through more than 75,000 cumulative flight hours, validating reliability at scale, while Volatus’ investment in human capital, training over 114,000 students globally, reinforces its role in building a sustainable, skilled ecosystem alongside its commercial and defense operations.

A "practical visionary" approach 

Glen’s message at Aerial Cities was clear: scaling in 2026 requires more than just high-tech hardware, it requires intellectual honesty, by focusing on customers with immediate problems, available technology, and legal pathways.

Lynch described what he calls the “Volatus Filter” for revenue generation; a disciplined framework that has enabled the company to scale while many others in the sector have stalled. Rather than starting with abstract use cases or future concepts, Volatus evaluates opportunities through a strict triad of readiness: a clearly defined customer problem, technology that is immediately deployable, and a regulatory environment that actively enables operations.

By prioritizing what can be executed today instead of what might be possible in the future, Volatus has systematically built a strong portfolio of regulatory approvals and waivers, allowing the company to operate beyond standard constraints and convert capability into reliable, repeatable revenue.

A forum for public-private resilience 

Glen ended the discussion by identifying Aerial Cities as the premier "no-commercial-objective" environment.

Addressing the question of how to enable scalable and safe aerial services, he emphasized that the next critical step lies in sustained participation in forums such as Aerial Cities. He described the event as an ideal environment where industry and government can engage in meaningful dialogue without the pressure of immediate commercial objectives, allowing for mutual understanding to develop on both sides.

He expressed appreciation for government representatives who have committed time to be present, underscoring the value this brings to the industry, and highlighted the importance of industry participants who actively support and sponsor these conversations.

According to his view, continued dialogue of this kind is essential to support sector-wide growth, with private–public partnerships, built on trust, understanding, and collaboration, serving as the foundation for the industry’s long-term progress.

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