AeroVironment profile
AeroVironment is one of the clearest public pure-play exposures to tactical unmanned aircraft and loitering munitions.
What AeroVironment does
AeroVironment designs and builds small unmanned aircraft and loitering munitions for defense customers, with the Switchblade family as its best-known line. The important structural point is that those two product types behave differently as a business: a loitering munition is expended on use, so demand tracks operational tempo and magazine-depth restocking, while a reconnaissance aircraft is a durable good whose economics depend on the training, spares, and sustainment tail sold behind the airframe. Reading the company as a single "drone maker" collapses that distinction and is the most common error in retail coverage.
The product lines that define the company for research purposes:
- Switchblade loitering munitions
- Tactical unmanned aircraft systems
- Small unmanned aircraft for ground forces
This profile is qualitative by design. It carries no share price, no price target, no valuation multiple, and no rating — those change faster than any page can honestly track, and the filings linked below are the authoritative source for them.
AeroVironment drone lineup
Named aircraft and loitering-munition systems shown in AeroVironment product catalogs and solution pages. Counter-UAS sensors and ground robots are excluded from this aerial lineup.
| Offering | Type | Status | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raven B / RQ-11B Official source | small uas | Active | Hand-launched tactical ISR aircraft. |
| Puma 3 AE Official source | small uas | Active | All-environment Group 2 ISR aircraft. |
| Puma LE Official source | small uas | Active | Long-endurance small UAS for tactical and maritime missions. |
| Puma VTOL Official source | small uas | Active | Puma family with vertical takeoff and landing capability. |
| JUMP 20 Official source | tactical isr | Active | Runway-independent VTOL fixed-wing ISR system. |
| JUMP 20-X Official source | tactical isr | Active | Current JUMP 20 product variant shown in the company solution catalog. |
| T-20 Official source | tactical isr | Active | Medium UAS with extended endurance and multi-payload options. |
| P550 Official source | tactical isr | Active | Autonomous Group 2 eVTOL aircraft for reconnaissance and strike missions. |
| VAPOR 55 MX Official source | commercial enterprise | Active | Multi-payload VTOL aircraft for industrial and defense missions. |
| VAPOR CLE Official source | tactical isr | Active | VAPOR-family aircraft shown in the current product catalog. |
| Switchblade 300 Block 20 Official source | loitering munition | Active | Backpackable precision loitering munition. |
| Switchblade 400 Official source | loitering munition | Active | Larger Switchblade family loitering munition shown in the current catalog. |
| Switchblade 600 Block 2 Official source | loitering munition | Active | Longer-range anti-armor loitering munition family. |
| Blackwing Official source | loitering munition | Active | Submarine-launched unmanned aircraft system in the company’s loitering-munition portfolio. |
| Mayhem 10 Official source | combat aircraft | In development | Uncrewed aircraft program shown in AeroVironment’s current solution catalog. |
Statuses are editorial classifications from the company’s current public catalog: active means currently presented for sale, delivery, or program work; development means publicly disclosed but not a mature production offering; legacy means retained for historical or installed-fleet coverage.
Recent contracts & awards
A dated log of the specific contracts, orders, funding, and deployments reported for AeroVironment, each tied to its primary source. This is a record of what was announced — a "selection", "award", or "partnership" is not the same as obligated money, so read each source before treating a figure as revenue. No figure appears here unless a source reported it.
- AeroVironment Awarded Reported $464.8 Million Army Contract for LOCUST Systems
Trade reports indicate AeroVironment secured a $464.8 million U.S. Army contract for LOCUST laser counter-drone systems. Researchers should verify the terms against official Department of Defense contract announcements and SEC filings to confirm the contract ceiling, period of performance, and actual initially obligated funding.
Military drones — original report - AeroVironment reportedly receives first international LOCUST order
Defense Daily reported that AeroVironment received its first international order for the LOCUST Counter-Drone Laser System; no value, customer, date, or scope was provided in the available source summary. Researchers should verify those details through an AeroVironment announcement, company filing, or official customer contract record before treating the report as obligated revenue.
AeroVironment — original report - AeroVironment Secures First International Order for LOCUST Counter-Drone Systems Valued Over $50M
AeroVironment announced its first international purchase order for the LOCUST directed energy counter-drone system, citing a value of more than $50 million. The release did not disclose the customer identity, delivery schedule, or program terms. Researchers should verify official contract awards and upcoming SEC filings to confirm obligated funding and delivery milestones before treating the headline figure as recognized revenue.
AeroVironment — original report - AeroVironment and US Army Announce Reported $464M Production Contract for Locust X3 Laser Systems
Under the Enduring-High Energy Laser programme, the U.S. Army and AeroVironment announced a reported $464 million contract to deliver dozens of 30-kW Locust X3 counter-drone laser systems for integration onto platforms like the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle over the next few years. Researchers should cross-reference official Department of Defense contract award announcements and AeroVironment's SEC filings to confirm initial obligated funding versus the total contract ceiling.
AeroVironment — original report - AeroVironment Awarded Reported $464.8 Million Army Contract for LOCUST X3 Laser System
MarketBeat reported that AeroVironment received a $464.8 million U.S. Army production contract for its LOCUST X3 counter-drone directed-energy laser system. Researchers should verify the award against official Department of Defense contract digests and SEC filings to confirm contract terms, delivery milestones, and whether the figure represents immediately obligated funding or a multi-year ceiling value.
AeroVironment — original report - AeroVironment Awarded $464.8M Army E-HEL Counter-UAS Contract for LOCUST
AeroVironment's LOCUST system was reported selected for a U.S. Army Counter-UAS contract, valued at $464.8 million, for the Enduring-High Energy Laser (E-HEL) program. Sources characterize this as the first procurement of directed energy laser weapon systems by the Army. Researchers should verify contract obligation details and award confirmation through official DoD or company SEC filings before treating the reported value as booked revenue.
Defense contracts — original report - AeroVironment LOCUST Selected for Army Counter-UAS, E-HEL Program
AeroVironment reports its LOCUST system was selected for a nearly $500 million U.S. Army contract under the Enduring-High Energy Laser (E-HEL) counter-UAS program. This is described as a selection, not an award of obligated funds. Researchers should verify the contract value and obligation status via official Army or DoD contracting records before treating the reported figure as booked revenue. (Source: AeroVironment press release)
Counter-drone systems — original report - AeroVironment Wins First-Ever U.S. Directed-Energy Production Contract, Worth $464.8M
The U.S. Army's Portfolio Acquisition Executive for Fires awarded AeroVironment a $464.8 million production contract under the Enduring-High Energy Laser (E-HEL) program, covering the 30-kilowatt LOCUST X3 laser weapon system. No laser weapon has reached a U.S. production contract before this one, by AeroVironment's account. Dozens of the platform-agnostic units are due over the next several years, for mounting on Army Joint Light Tactical Vehicles and possibly Infantry Squad Vehicles. The award follows testing at White Sands Missile Range and a $30 million AeroVironment facility investment in Albuquerque, New Mexico announced in March 2026.
StockTitan: AV’s LOCUST selected for nearly $500 million Army counter-UAS contract - AeroVironment Wins NASA Contract for Three Mars Helicopters
NASA awarded AeroVironment a contract to build three autonomous helicopters for a future Mars mission, extending the rotorcraft work AeroVironment began with the Ingenuity helicopter that flew alongside the Perseverance rover. The announcement did not disclose a contract value or a target launch window. This is a civil-space award, separate from the Switchblade and tactical-UAS contracts above, and it shows AeroVironment's small-rotorcraft engineering carrying over from a defense customer base into NASA's planetary-science program.
StockTitan: AeroVironment awarded contract for three autonomous helicopters in support of NASA - AeroVironment Receives $51M Army Order for Switchblade 600 Loitering Munitions
AeroVironment received a $51 million delivery order under the U.S. Army's Lethal Unmanned Systems (LUS) indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract, a five-year, $990 million framework established in August 2024. The order covers Switchblade 600 Block 2 systems for the Army plus Switchblade 600 Block 1 systems for a Foreign Military Sale to a US ally. The announcement did not specify a delivery timeline. Switchblade 600 has been fielded across more than 20 Army brigade combat teams since 2025.
StockTitan: AeroVironment receives $51 million U.S. Army order for Switchblade 600 - AeroVironment Reported to Receive $46M Army Cargo Drone Contract
According to Stock Titan, AeroVironment has been awarded a $46 million contract by the U.S. Army for a cargo drone that does not require a runway. The source does not specify the contract date or additional program details. Researchers should cross-check the reported contract value and recipient in official Department of Defense contract announcements or AeroVironment's own filings to confirm obligated funds and specifics.
Military drones — original report - AeroVironment awarded $464.8M Army contract for LOCUST X3 counter-UAS laser system
On 2023-10-05, AeroVironment was awarded a $464.8 million US Army contract under an Other Transaction Agreement (OTA) to produce LOCUST X3 high-energy laser counter-UAS systems as part of the Enduring-High Energy Laser (E-HEL) program. The contract covers production, support, and training, with integration planned for platforms such as the JLTV. Researchers should verify the contract award value and structure against official US Army or DoD records before treating this as obligated revenue.
Counter-drone systems — original report
Where AeroVironment sits in the value chain
AeroVironment is a defense contractor whose unmanned work sits inside a wider defense portfolio, so drone headlines are only one input into results and can be offset — in both directions — by unrelated segments.
Its disclosed activity spans aerial drones. That placement is the single most useful thing to fix in your head before reading any coverage, because the same headline means different things at different layers: a large platform award is transformative for a pure-play, material but diluted for a diversified contractor, and only indirectly relevant to a component supplier whose exposure arrives later as build-rate demand. Retail coverage routinely applies one story to all three layers at once. For the layer-by-layer comparison across the sector, see the drone stocks research shortlist and the list of publicly traded drone companies.
What to watch
The signals worth tracking are structural, not price-based — they tell you whether the business is changing shape, which is what eventually shows up in the numbers.
- Whether growth is coming from expendable munitions or from durable airframes, because those two revenue streams repeat on completely different clocks.
- How much of the reported business is program-of-record work versus one-off or urgent-need buys — programs of record are budgeted years ahead, urgent-need buys are not.
- Whether international demand is disclosed separately, since foreign military sales run on a different approval timeline than domestic procurement.
- How the sustainment and services line moves relative to hardware, which is the cleanest read on whether fielded fleets are actually growing.
How to research AeroVironment
Every question below has one authoritative source, and using the wrong source is how most retail research goes wrong.
| Research question | Where the answer lives | What to look for |
|---|---|---|
| How much of this is really drones? | Segment tables in the annual filing | Whether unmanned systems are reported as their own segment or buried inside a larger one. |
| Is the revenue repeatable? | Revenue-recognition policy and backlog discussion | Recurring sustainment, services, or subscription language versus one-time hardware sales. |
| Is a win real money? | Official DoD contract announcements | Contract type, awarding command, and whether the amount announced is obligated or a ceiling. |
| Can the balance sheet fund the plan? | Liquidity discussion and share-count disclosure | Dilution history and cash runway relative to the manufacturing scale-up being promised. |
- The segment tables in the latest annual report on SEC EDGAR are the only authoritative view of how revenue splits across product lines — start there, not with a summary site.
- The Department of Defense daily contract announcements name the awarding service and the scope of work, which is how you tell a genuine new program from a follow-on modification.
- Backlog and funded-versus-unfunded language in the filings tells you how much of the reported pipeline is actually appropriated money.
- Product pages on the company site establish which systems exist; they are marketing, so treat capability claims there as vendor claims, not verified performance.
One failure mode is worth naming explicitly: a company announcement describing a "selection", "award", or "partnership" is not the same as obligated money, and the two are easy to conflate because they use the same vocabulary. Check the filing before treating either as revenue. Our full approach is documented on the methodology page.
AeroVironment FAQ
What does AeroVironment do?
AeroVironment designs and builds small unmanned aircraft and loitering munitions for defense customers, with the Switchblade family as its best-known line.
Is AeroVironment publicly traded?
AeroVironment trades as AVAV on NASDAQ. Listing status is not a quality signal, and nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell it.
What should investors watch with AeroVironment?
Whether growth is coming from expendable munitions or from durable airframes, because those two revenue streams repeat on completely different clocks.
Where can I research AeroVironment directly?
Go to the primary sources: AeroVironment investor relations, AeroVironment SEC filings. Avoid aggregator summaries when the filing itself is available.
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