Key Points
- AeroVironment has been chosen by the U.S. Army to ship its Next-Generation C-UAS Missile.
- The firm was additionally awarded a $95.9 million contract for the Army’s Long-Range Kinetic Interceptor program.
AeroVironment, Inc. introduced on October 22, 2025, that it has been chosen to ship the U.S. Army’s Next-Generation C-UAS Missile (NGCM).
According to an organization press launch, AeroVironment (AV) was additionally awarded a $95.9 million contract for the U.S. Army’s Long-Range Kinetic Interceptor (LRKI) program. This contract was awarded by way of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Aviation & Missile Center (CCDC AvMC) Aviation & Missile Technology Consortium (AMTC).
As a part of the LRKI program, AV will manufacture and ship its Freedom Eagle (FE-1) kinetic C-UAS missile. AeroVironment is named a supplier of Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-UAS) and superior air and missile protection applied sciences.
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In an announcement, Jimmy Jenkins, Executive Vice President of AV’s Precision Strike and Defense Systems Group, stated, “FE-1 strengthens our nation’s air protection arsenal by offering an urgently wanted kinetic C-UAS resolution–constructed to fill the gaps in right this moment’s protection capabilities and meet the adversarial threats of tomorrow.”
Jenkins continued, “This choice by the U.S. Army is a testomony to AV’s intentional investments, unmatched agility and technical experience, and unwavering dedication to our nation’s nationwide safety priorities. We are shortly scaling manufacturing to ship FE-1 to the frontlines, the place they’ll present essential warfighter safety and inform our growth for full-rate manufacturing.”
AeroVironment describes the FE-1 as a low-cost, high-performance resolution designed to neutralize Groups 2 and three UAS. The firm additionally famous it maintains residual functionality in opposition to Group 1 UAS, fixed-wing, and rotary-wing plane, offering elevated lethality, prolonged vary, and speedy launch capabilities.
The missile has already achieved a number of key growth milestones. These embody a profitable live-fire demonstration of its dual-thrust strong rocket motor, managed take a look at automobile (CTV) launches, and warhead exams. As famous by the corporate, these achievements show FE-1’s technological maturity and lowered technical danger in preparation for discipline deployment.
“FE-1 is greater than only a missile. It’s a transformative functionality for next-generation air and missile protection,” stated Daniel Noland, Senior Director of Strategic Capture for AV. “Our staff–facet by facet with our business companions and U.S. Army clients–has put in lengthy hours within the lab and on the vary as a result of they believed within the mission: to quickly develop the expertise our warfighters have to deal with our nation’s hardest aerial threats. We’re able to transition this disruptive expertise from analysis and growth to the battlefield and targeted on ramping up manufacturing to ship with scale and velocity.”
To ship the brand new kinetic platform on a speedy timeline, AeroVironment stated it developed essential strategic partnerships and assembled a staff of business consultants, together with Applied Systems Engineering Inc. (ASEI).
The firm acknowledged that the FE-1 joins AV’s portfolio of C-UAS options, which embody Directed Energy (DE), Radio Frequency (RF)-based, and Electronic Warfare (EW) programs. The press launch additionally famous the corporate is a supplier of precision strike and loitering munitions, together with Switchblade and JUMP 20.
According to AeroVironment, these capabilities kind an end-to-end, multi-domain protection structure designed to deal with superior UAS threats.
