Draganfly Wins U.S. Military Contract to Construct FPV Drones Abroad

The U.S. Military is getting severe about FPV drones. It chosen Draganfly Inc., which is a publicly traded firm headquartered in Saskatoon, Canada, to produce Flex FPV drone methods.

However right here’s the place it will get fascinating: as an alternative of simply transport bins of drones from factories again house, Draganfly will assist set up on-site manufacturing services at abroad U.S. Forces places. That’s proper — the Military needs to construct drones nearer to the place they’ll truly be used.

Why the Draganfly FPV information issues

In case you’ve been following the evolution of drone warfare (and in case you’re studying this web site, you most likely have), you recognize that FPV drones have essentially modified fashionable fight. We’ve seen this play out dramatically in Ukraine, the place low-cost, nimble FPV drones have challenged conventional army {hardware} in ways in which appeared like science fiction just some years in the past. And the U.S. army has been paying very shut consideration.

In the course of the Swift Response 2025 train in Lithuania earlier this yr, paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade flew and detonated their very own in-house-built FPV drones in opposition to dismounted troops and vehicle-sized autonomous targets. The unit even established its personal drone lab for design, coaching, and speedy innovation. Briefly, it created its personal DIY workshop for constructing army drones.

And in August 2025, the U.S. Military achieved a big milestone: the first-ever air-to-air kill with an armed FPV drone, signaling that drone-on-drone warfare is changing into a actuality.

What Draganfly will do

Underneath this preliminary order, Draganfly will ship three key elements:

• Flex FPV drone methods designed for high-performance army operations.
• On-site manufacturing capabilities inside abroad U.S. Forces services to hurry up deployment and lower supply-chain delays.
• Complete coaching masking each flight operations and manufacturing, plus logistics administration to make sure NDAA-compliant provide chains.

“We’re honored to help the U.S. Military because it strikes essential drone capabilities nearer to entrance traces,” mentioned Cameron Chell, President and CEO of Draganfly in a ready assertion. “By combining superior Flex FPV Drone methods, embedded manufacturing, coaching and safe logistics, we’re serving to reinforce operational agility and sustainment for forward-deployed forces.”

The larger image: decentralized drone manufacturing

This embedded manufacturing strategy represents a big shift in how the army thinks about drone procurement.

Conventional protection contracts imply ordering gear, ready for it to be manufactured someplace far-off, transport it abroad and hoping it arrives whenever you want it. That mannequin works advantageous for some issues, however FPV drones for army use are completely different. They’re comparatively easy to construct, they’re expendable by design and battlefield wants change quickly.

By establishing manufacturing capabilities nearer to the place drones shall be used, the Military can reply sooner to evolving threats, cut back logistical vulnerabilities, and provides troopers the flexibility to iterate on designs based mostly on real-world suggestions. It’s agile manufacturing meets army operations.

This strategy additionally addresses provide chain safety considerations. By manufacturing drones in-theater with NDAA-compliant elements, the Military reduces dependence on probably weak worldwide provide chains.

What’s Draganfly?

Draganfly was based in 1998 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Draganfly was constructing professional-grade drones when most of us have been nonetheless taking part in with RC helicopters.

The corporate went public in 2019 (NASDAQ: DPRO) and has been a gradual participant within the skilled drone market, specializing in public security, agriculture, industrial inspections and more and more, protection purposes. Draganfly’s drones have appeared within the Smithsonian’s Nationwide Air and Area Museum, and the corporate was credited with the world’s first profitable search and rescue mission utilizing a small unmanned aerial system.

What’s FPV?

FPV — is brief for First Particular person View. This type of flying was once primarily the area of drone racing fanatics sporting goggles and flying custom-built quads by impediment programs at excessive speeds.

Now comes an instance of how improvements from the passion and racing world have crossed over into skilled and protection purposes.

As I’ve famous earlier than, many drone corporations that began with client merchandise have pivoted towards enterprise and army purposes. We’ve seen this with corporations like Crimson Cat (dad or mum firm of Teal), which offered off its FPV racing manufacturers Fats Shark and Rotor Riot to give attention to protection. In the meantime, Skydio shut down its client division to focus on enterprise and army clients. Even Parrot, which principally invented the patron drone market with the AR.Drone, now focuses nearly completely on enterprise merchandise just like the ANAFI USA for presidency and army use.

The shift is sensible. Navy budgets are bigger and extra secure than client markets, safety necessities favor American producers, and up to date conflicts have confirmed that drones — notably FPV drones — are now not optionally available battlefield gear.

What’s subsequent from right here?

If this pilot program succeeds, we may see comparable embedded manufacturing applications develop to different places and probably different army branches. For instance, the Air Pressure has already proven curiosity in FPV expertise by its partnership with the Drone Racing League.

Whereas Draganfly hasn’t disclosed the monetary phrases of this preliminary order, the embedded manufacturing mannequin suggests this could possibly be a long-term relationship moderately than a one-time buy. Coaching Military personnel to fabricate their very own drones means Draganfly is positioning itself as an ongoing companion moderately than only a vendor.

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