Cheap, smart, deadly. The tech industry pitches a new way to wage war.

Defense start-up Anduril Industries has deep ties to President Trump ’s tech funders and advisers.

It is the most prominent among a raft of defense upstarts aiming to challenge established defense contractors by recasting U.S. military technology around nimble drones and software.

It imagines fleets of deadly aerial and undersea drones that can tirelessly patrol the world.

Anduril was selected last year as one of two companies that will build autonomous jet fighters for an Air Force program developing robotic wingmen to support human pilots.

The start-up announced it will spend $1 billion on a new factory in Columbus to build drones and missiles from 2026 .

Several of the start-ups' co-founders are veterans of Palantir , which sells data analysis software to government.

Anduril and other start-ups envision the U.S. fielding thousands of small airborne and oceangoing drones that constantly crisscross the Pacific Ocean .

They could provide superior surveillance and attack capabilities to conventional ships and aircraft at much lower cost.

The strategy might also help with recruiting enough soldiers and sailors to fill its ranks.