Palladyne AI Corp. (NASDAQ: PDYN), a U.S.-based defense and industrial technology company delivering embodied AI-powered collaborative autonomy solutions, advanced avionics, precision-manufactured components, UAVs, and advanced aerospace engineering services, announced the appointment of Maj. Gen. Mark A. “Droopy” Clark, USMC (Ret.), to its Defense Advisory Board.
Clark’s command of Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command (MARSOC) and his prior service as Director of Operations and Chief of Staff at U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) give Palladyne AI direct line of sight into how MARSOC and the broader special operations community define, evaluate, and field new technology. His experience will help inform how Palladyne AI applies and positions its portfolio of low-cost, attritable systems and the components that enable them, coupled with SwarmOS™ collaborative autonomy software, for the direct action, special reconnaissance, and distributed operations MARSOC executes.
“Special operations forces operate in environments where complexity, time pressure, and communications constraints are the norm,” said Clark. “The next generation of autonomous systems must make small teams more effective without adding complexity for the operator. Palladyne AI’s focus on edge autonomy, collaborative systems, and practical human-machine teaming is aligned with the kind of capability the force needs as autonomous operations scale.”
“Gen. Clark joins us at a pivotal moment,” said Ben Wolff, President and Chief Executive Officer of Palladyne AI. “Palladyne AI is building a vertically integrated capability for the U.S. Department of War that includes collaborative autonomy, the systems and munitions it commands, and the American manufacturing base behind them. Leaders of Gen. Clark’s caliber choose to advise Palladyne AI because they believe in that capability and its potential for the mission.”
Clark joins a growing roster of retired general and flag officers on Palladyne AI’s Defense Advisory Board whose firsthand command experience informs the Company’s technology development, customer engagement, and fielding strategies for advanced autonomous systems.
Palladyne AI’s defense portfolio pairs SwarmOS, its collaborative autonomy software that lets a single operator command a heterogeneous team of unmanned systems at the edge, without continuous centralized control, with the low-cost attritable systems that mission sets demand. These include Gremlin-X™, a next-generation reusable mini-bomber; SwarmStrike™, an autonomous precision-strike weapons platform; and the combat-proven HARPY, HAROP, and Mini HARPY loitering munitions Palladyne AI will manufacture and integrate for the U.S. Department of War through its partnership with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).
About Palladyne AI
Palladyne AI is a U.S.-based technology company developing patented embodied artificial intelligence, collaborative autonomy solutions, and autonomous systems for defense and industrial markets. Palladyne AI delivers secure, American-developed and operated platforms designed to meet the stringent requirements of U.S. government and public-sector customers, including data sovereignty, security, and compliance.
Palladyne AI’s embodied AI is designed to operate in complex, contested, and high-risk environments, enabling distributed tasking, human-on-the-loop decision-making, degraded-communications resilience, and multi-domain coordination. Its platform-agnostic autonomy stack combines real-time sensor fusion, adaptive AI models, and edge-native orchestration to support autonomous and collaborative systems across air, ground, maritime, and industrial domains. For more information about Palladyne AI, including GuideTech and Palladyne Aerospace and Defense, please visit www.palladyneai.com.