The US Air Force has awarded Aevex an $18.5 million production contract for autonomous unmanned aircraft intended for one-way attack missions, expanding the service’s portfolio of low-cost expendable drones. The company announced the deal on May 13 during the Xponential unmanned systems convention in Detroit.
The contract covers delivery of Group 3 unmanned aircraft systems along with engineering and field services support. Aevex said the order supports deployment of its additive-manufactured Group 3 platforms, produced through its ForgeX manufacturing system. While the Air Force has not publicly detailed the specific configuration, Aevex’s Group 3 Onyx system has a maximum takeoff weight of 47.6 kg, payload capacity of 13.6 kg, endurance of up to 2.8 hours or about 270 km, and a cruise speed of 55 kt.
According to the company, the aircraft are designed for affordability, rapid production, and mission flexibility, with autonomy features intended to reduce operator workload in contested environments. Aevex has previously supplied thousands of similar precision-strike and one-way attack systems to Ukraine, and the new Air Force order fits within broader US military efforts to field scalable, expendable drone munitions informed by recent combat experience.