The 2026 CNBC Disruptor 50 list will be revealed Tuesday, May 19th
Gecko Robotics, a Pittsburgh-based robotics startup, on Tuesday announced a $71 million deal with the U.S. Navy to cut down ship repair time as the government races to reindustrialize America’s aging defense systems.
The company said its robots — capable of flying, swimming, and climbing critical infrastructure — use cameras and sensors to condense a three-month process down to as little as two days. Gecko also said the robots can assess necessary maintenance 50 times faster than other manual techniques.
“This is the kind of stuff that was never possible before, and it’s the reason why it’s taken 18 months to get a destroyer out of the dry dock,” CEO and co-founder Jake Loosararian told CNBC in an interview. “This is not acceptable anymore.”
Loosararian said Gecko will support the Navy’s goal of 80% fleet readiness by 2027 and streamline ship production so that soldiers can focus on fighting and other threats.
