US military drone manufacturers in 2026 fall into three groups: startups such as Anduril, Shield AI, Skydio and Neros; primes such as General Atomics and Northrop Grumman; and listed specialists such as AeroVironment (AVAV), Kratos (KTOS) and Red Cat (RCAT). Our tables list 18 companies with a sourced milestone for each, as of November 14, 2026.
The split matters because the Pentagon now buys drones in very different ways: big programs of record for large aircraft, fast "Gauntlet" fly-offs for cheap attack drones, and vetted lists for small quadcopters. Startups win most of the volume at the low-cost end; primes still own the largest airframes. Startups and scaleups in the tables link to their profiles in our directory of drone companies.
How we built this list
A company is included if it builds uncrewed aircraft, or the core autopilot or software inside them, and has a reported 2025 or 2026 contract, selection or production milestone with the US military. "Startup" follows our directory rule: privately held, US-headquartered and founded in 2010 or later. Each milestone links to the source we used. We describe capabilities only as companies and the press have reported them.
Military drone startups in the USA
| Company | Headquarters | Military drones | Latest reported milestone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anduril Industries | Costa Mesa, California | Fury (FQ-44A) collaborative combat aircraft | Air Force CCA Increment 1 production award, Jun 17, 2026 (DefenseScoop) |
| Shield AI | San Diego, California | V-BAT Group 3 ISR drone; Hivemind autonomy | Hivemind advanced to the next phase of the Air Force CCA autonomy competition, Jun 2026 (DefenseScoop) |
| Skydio | San Mateo, California | X10D small quadcopter | Army order for nearly 3,000 X10D drones, $52M, Mar 2026 (DroneXL) |
| Neros Technologies | El Segundo, California | Archer FPV strike drone; Bandit interceptor | Army Purpose-Built Attritable Systems contract, $500M ceiling, Jun 30, 2026 (DroneXL) |
| Performance Drone Works (PDW) | Huntsville, Alabama | C100 quadcopter | $110M Series B led by Ondas, Mar 25, 2026 (Defense Daily) |
| Firestorm Labs | San Diego, California | 3D-printed drones; xCell containerized factory | $100M Air Force R&D contract; $82M Series B, Apr 29, 2026 (Washington Technology) |
| Darkhive | San Antonio, Texas | REVENANT small multirotor | Selected to lead a $49.7M APFIT program, Mar 2026 (company release) |
| Swarm Aero | Oxnard, California | Large long-range uncrewed aircraft | Picked by the Defense Innovation Unit from 132 companies for Autonomous Collaborative Teaming (Pulse 2.0, Mar 2026) |
| Mach Industries | Huntington Beach, California | Viper one-way attack drone; vertical-takeoff cruise missile | Chosen to lead aircraft integration for the RIMES program, Jul 2026 (The Defense Post) |
| Auterion | Arlington, Virginia | Autonomy software and strike kits for low-cost drones | Among 11 vendors receiving Drone Dominance Gauntlet I orders, Mar 2026 (DefenseScoop) |
| Vector | Bluffdale, Utah | Hammer uncrewed system; high-voltage safe and arm device | Drone Dominance Phase II orders of up to 5,000 systems (Utah Business, Nov 2, 2026) |
| ModalAI | San Diego, California (founded there in 2018) | VOXL 2 autopilot; Stinger Vision FPV | Ranked fourth of 11 after Gauntlet I; FPV on the Blue UAS Cleared Select list (ModalAI) |
Neros is the clearest example of the new model. The El Segundo company produces about 1,200 aircraft a week and targets 10,000 a month by the end of 2026, according to DroneXL, which reported its $250 million Series C at a $2.5 billion valuation in August 2026. It placed second in Gauntlet I and first on the close-quarters leaderboard in Gauntlet II. El Segundo has enough defense startups to have its own El Segundo hub page.
At the other end of the scale, Anduril builds a jet-powered collaborative combat aircraft, and Shield AI sells the V-BAT, which its product page says flies more than 12 hours with an electro-optical and infrared payload and was competitively selected by the US Coast Guard. Skydio builds the X10D small quadcopter and, according to DroneXL, plans to triple output at its Hayward, California factory in 2026 to meet Army commitments.
Vector and ModalAI both placed in the Gauntlet II close quarters battle top five. ModalAI is also a supplier: its VOXL 2 autopilot is on the Blue UAS Framework list of approved components, which other drone makers use to qualify.
Defense primes that build military drones
| Company | Ownership | Military drones | Latest reported milestone |
|---|---|---|---|
| General Atomics Aeronautical Systems | Private | MQ-9 Reaper family; FQ-42A Dark Merlin CCA | Air Force CCA Increment 1 production award, Jun 17, 2026 (DefenseScoop) |
| Northrop Grumman | Public (NYSE: NOC) | Mission systems and Prism autonomy on the XQ-58 | Sole prime on the Marine Corps MUX TACAIR other transaction agreement, $231.5M, Jan 8, 2026 (DefenseScoop) |
| RTX (Collins Aerospace) | Public (NYSE: RTX) | CCA mission autonomy | Advanced to the next phase of the CCA autonomy competition, Jun 2026 (DefenseScoop) |
General Atomics is privately owned but is not a startup: it is a long-established contractor and the builder of the MQ-9. In June 2026 the Air Force moved both CCA designs into production instead of picking one, and asked for $996.5 million in fiscal 2027 (FY2027) to start buying them, with at least 150 aircraft planned by the end of the decade, DefenseScoop reported. A primary autonomy provider is due to be chosen by summer 2027 from Anduril, Shield AI and Collins Aerospace.
American drone manufacturers that are publicly traded
| Company | Ticker | Military drones | Latest reported milestone |
|---|---|---|---|
| AeroVironment | Nasdaq: AVAV | Switchblade loitering munitions; Puma and Raven small UAS | Army delivery order for Switchblade 600 Block 2 and Switchblade 300 variants, $186M, Feb 26, 2026 (Defense News) |
| Kratos Defense & Security Solutions | Nasdaq: KTOS | XQ-58 Valkyrie | Valkyrie selected as the airframe for the Marine Corps MUX TACAIR effort, Jan 2026 (DefenseScoop) |
| Red Cat Holdings (Teal Drones) | Nasdaq: RCAT | Black Widow small reconnaissance drone | Army Short Range Reconnaissance program of record; initial target of 5,880 systems over five years, Nov 2024 (The Robot Report) |
| Northrop Grumman | NYSE: NOC | See primes table | MUX TACAIR prime, Jan 2026 |
Investors searching for "drone stocks" should note that the fastest-growing US military drone makers, including Anduril, Shield AI, Skydio and Neros, are private and have no ticker. Some public companies hold stakes in them: Ondas (Nasdaq: ONDS) led PDW's Series B and invested in Firestorm Labs, according to Defense Daily and Washington Technology. This article is for information only and is not investment advice.
How the Pentagon buys military drones in 2026
The Drone Dominance program and its Gauntlets
In July 2025, Secretary Pete Hegseth's memo "Unleashing U.S. Military Drone Dominance" set a goal of small drone dominance by the end of 2027, as DIU recalled in its December 2025 announcement. The Department of Defense (DoD), which has also styled itself the Department of War since September 2025, turned that into the Drone Dominance program, which buys low-cost attack drones after competitive fly-offs called Gauntlets.
- Gauntlet I (Fort Benning, Georgia, February 2026): 11 vendors received delivery orders for about 30,000 one-way attack drones worth about $150 million. Skycutter, headquartered in London, finished first with 99.3 points; Neros came second, followed by Napatree, ModalAI and Auterion (DefenseScoop).
- Gauntlet II (Fort Carson, Colorado, results September 2026): 1,858 sorties across 23 platforms from 19 companies, with about 60,000 drones planned. The deep strike leaderboard was Perennial Autonomy, Hyperscale, Neros, Skycutter and Swarm Defense Technologies; the close quarters battle leaderboard was Neros, ORQA US, XTEND Reality, Vector and ModalAI (DefenseScoop).
- Next: a Gauntlet 2.5 for "bomber" drones, which slipped from October and began on November 13, 2026, then Gauntlets 3 and 4 at roughly six-month intervals.
Not every Gauntlet vendor is American: Gauntlet I winner Skycutter is headquartered in London. A high Drone Dominance ranking does not by itself make a company a US manufacturer.
The Blue UAS list, now run by DCMA
Small drones bought by the military must usually clear security vetting. On December 3, 2025, DIU handed the Blue UAS Cleared List to the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA), whose Unmanned Systems Experimental Command in Palmdale, California now manages it. As of November 19, 2025 the list held more than 39 certified systems and 165 components from 81 companies processed to date, DIU said.
Programs of record and big contracts
Large aircraft still come through programs of record: the Air Force CCA, the Marine Corps MUX TACAIR and the Army's Short Range Reconnaissance program. The Army's 2024 SRR selection of Red Cat displaced Skydio as incumbent, The Robot Report noted, yet the Army still ordered nearly 3,000 Skydio X10D drones in March 2026, described by DroneXL as the largest single-vendor small drone buy in US military history. Founders entering this market usually start with smaller vehicles such as SBIR and Defense Innovation Unit prototypes; see our guides to SBIR award amounts and the Defense Innovation Unit CSO.
Are there US drone companies like DJI?
Not at DJI's scale in consumer drones, but several US companies now build small drones for the military in volume. Skydio says its Hayward factory is the largest drone factory in the US at scale production. Neros builds about 1,200 FPV aircraft a week, Red Cat's Teal builds the Army's SRR drone, and Firestorm Labs ships containerized xCell units that print drones near the user. For defense buyers, being NDAA-compliant and on the Blue UAS list matters more than consumer features.
Where US military drone makers are based
California dominates: eight of the 12 startups in our first table are based there, from San Diego to the South Bay around El Segundo and Torrance, where Neros is building a 250,000 square foot plant. Texas, Alabama, Utah and Virginia also host drone makers. Browse defense tech companies in California or the full America Defense Tech directory.
