Walk into the IMTS Manufacturing Showcase brought to you by GIE Media in booth #432636 in the West Building and get an up close look at an impressive lineup of Kratos' unmanned aircraft: the Valkyrie Collaborative Combat Aircraft/Autonomous Collaborative Platform, MQM-178 Firejet, BQM-177 Subsonic Aerial Target, and BQM-167 High-Performance Aerial Target.These aircraft are built for very different missions, but they share something that should resonate with anyone visiting IMTS: Behind every finished system are the machinists, manufacturing teams, technologies, and suppliers that make it possible.Austin Wilkinson understands that connection firsthand.Today, Wilkinson is director of production operations for Kratos Defense & Security Solutions in Oklahoma City, leading a team that helps manufacture these advanced unmanned aircraft. His own career began much closer to the machine tool.“I’m a machinist by trade,” Wilkinson said.And IMTS 2026 is his first IMTS. “I’ve never attended IMTS, but I’ve always wanted to,” he said.For Wilkinson, having the Kratos aircraft at IMTS provides an opportunity to show other machinists something he rarely got to see early in his career: where the parts they make can go.“I made a part. I never knew where it went, didn’t know what it was for,” he recalled.Now, a machinist walking through the Kratos display can look at one of these aircraft and think: I might have made something that went into that. I made something that flies.That connection brings Wilkinson’s own manufacturing journey full circle.From Canada to AerospaceWilkinson grew up in a small town north of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. In high school, he found his way into machining and completed an apprenticeship to become a Red Seal machinist.His early work included agricultural equipment, steel mill repair, and elevator components.At 21, Wilkinson decided to move to the United States and settled in Northern California near Sacramento. There, he joined Composite Engineering Inc., or CEI, which was getting into aerospace and working on the BQM-167.That changed the trajectory of his career.“I just fell in love with it at that point,” Wilkinson said. “The whole aerospace piece of it. And what we were doing and why we were doing it.”Kratos later acquired CEI. Wilkinson eventually left for another manufacturing opportunity in underwater robotics, where he managed a machine shop and manufacturing facility, before returning to Kratos in 2021 for a role in Oklahoma City.Today, he leads a team of about 160 people.And he is quick to give them the credit.“Anything that goes right is because my team did it,” Wilkinson said. “Anything that goes wrong is because I made a decision or I did something.”When asked about his most valuable asset, he answered immediately, “It is my people 100% of the time. I have the utmost confidence in what we can do because of them.”See Where the Parts GoFor Wilkinson, seeing the finished aircraft at IMTS brings his own journey full circle. As a machinist, he understands the pride that comes from seeing how an individual part can ultimately contribute to an aircraft in flight.And as Kratos increases production, more machinists, job shops, and suppliers could have the opportunity to contribute to these systems.Wilkinson said the value of exhibiting at IMTS includes exposure to potential suppliers for the machining, composites, metallics, and other manufacturing work that goes into Kratos products.Kratos has recently expanded its Oklahoma City manufacturing facility by more than 100,000 square feet for manufacturing, assembly, integration, and testing as it works to increase production of Valkyrie, Firejet, and other jet drone systems.For manufacturers at IMTS, this creates an opportunity to see both the finished systems and the technologies and supplier capabilities that support them.Looking for What Comes NextWilkinson and his team are also using IMTS to explore technologies that could help improve production.Additive manufacturing is one area of interest, particularly as Kratos continues to explore composite applications. Automation is another.Wilkinson described how some carbon-fiber materials were once cut by hand with scissors. Today, automated cutting equipment can handle that work more efficiently and allow employees to focus on other manufacturing tasks.He also pointed to tool presetting and process control as ways to improve consistency in the machine shop.But when asked which exhibitors he was most excited to see at IMTS, Wilkinson did not narrow it down to a single technology or company.“All of them,” he said.His reason captures one of the best parts of walking IMTS.“We don’t know what we don’t know,” Wilkinson said. “We don’t know until we go see and look and something catches our eye.”Then comes the question manufacturers ask every day: What is that, and how can it apply to what we’re doing?The IMTS Manufacturing Showcase, brought to you by GIE Media in booth #432636, showcased the Valkyrie, Firejet, BQM-177, and BQM-167 up close, including the machining, composites, automation, and supplier capabilities that go into the finished aircraft.Further Reading: IMTS 2026: Where Connections Become SolutionsMain Stage, Big Ideas: Hear From the People Shaping ManufacturingTwo Daily Live IMTS Shows Spotlight Manufacturing
Walk into the IMTS Manufacturing Showcase brought to you by GIE Media in booth #432636 in the West Building and get an up close look at an impressive lineup of Kratos' unmanned aircraft: the Valkyrie Collaborative Combat Aircraft/Autonomous Collaborative Platform, MQM-178 Firejet, BQM-177 Subsonic Aerial Target, and BQM-167 High-Performance Aerial Target.
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