Swarm Aero lands $10 million in Air Force contracts, to benefit Fayetteville operations - Talk Business & Politics
Swarm Aero, an Oxnard, Calif. -based drone company with manufacturing operations in Fayetteville, received $10 million in federal contracts to advance its high-rate manufacturing technology and produce aircraft components for the. . .
Swarm Aero’s Advanced Manufacturing Center in Fayetteville will be the site of significant research and development on high-rate composite aerostructures to advance low-cost, large aircraft at scale. Swarm Aero, an Oxnard, Calif. -based drone company with manufacturing operations in Fayetteville, received $10 million in federal contracts to advance its high-rate manufacturing technology and produce aircraft components for the U. S. Air Force. This is expected to create jobs for its Fayetteville manufacturing center. The contracts with the Air Force Research Laboratory include performing research and development on the company’s novel, high-rate composite manufacturing approach and producing aircraft parts for the Air Force. “Since our first engineering hire, Swarm has invested in manufacturing and design in tandem,” said Peter Kalogiannis, CEO and co-founder of Swarm Aero. “We are not designing or even building one aircraft only to then start thinking about how to manufacture it at scale. We have designed our manufacturing processes to enable us to deliver aircraft at the scale our customers require. Our team has a strong track record both in building large, novel aircraft extremely quickly and in delivering aircraft at volume. We’re looking forward to leveraging our manufacturing approach to build cost-efficient, flyable aircraft components using our unique methods. ”Swarm Aero has doubled its staff at the Fayetteville manufacturing center to 10 since the start of summer. The company plans to add two more full-time employees before the fall starts. In May, the companywon its appealfrom the Fayetteville City Council to remain open in an 80,000-square-foot manufacturing center at 3660 S. School Ave. in Fayetteville. The city and company faced pressure from residents critical of the company’s relationship with the U. S. military. The work underway at the Fayetteville site includes research and development of high-rate manufacturing techniques. It will make test parts from carbon composites. Then, it will make aircraft parts that will be transported across the country for assembly. After the first drone flies, an end-to-end assembly line will be established at the Fayetteville site, enabling drones to be manufactured there. The first drones are expected to fly within the next two years. Over the next decade, the center in Fayetteville is expected to create hundreds of high-skill aerospace jobs. People and machines will assemble the drones. According to the company, the drones will be the size of a business jet and smaller than many of the jets that operate at Drake Field. With the use of drones in Russian invasion of Ukraine and the more recent U. S. and Israeli attack on Iran, the U. S. Department of Defense is boosting its investment in drone technology, design and manufacturing. More than $70 billion for drones and counter-drone systems are part of the proposed $1. 5 trillion defense budget. “Drone warfare is rapidly reshaping the modern battlefield, and this budget is the largest investment in drone warfare and counter-drone technology in U. S. history,” Jules Hurst III, the official performing the duties of comptroller and undersecretary of defense, said inthis reportfrom Defense Scoop. “Manned-unmanned teaming is the future of combat, and this budget makes it a reality. ”Related