AeroVironment wins $117.3m US Army contract for P550 reconnaissance drones

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AeroVironment has been awarded a $117.3 million contract by the US Army for its P550 electric vertical take-off and landing drone, as per a recent press statement. The deal supports the Army’s Long Range Reconnaissance programme and marks a significant step in fielding scalable autonomous capabilities.

The US Army issued the award under a Basic Ordering Agreement through a competitive Call for Solutions. This process falls under the Army’s UAS Marketplace initiative, a digital platform built to speed up procurement of vetted drone technology.

Under the contract, AeroVironment will supply 82 P550 uncrewed aircraft systems for the Army’s Battalion Reconnaissance effort. The award represents the system’s initial full-rate procurement and signals the Army’s push to rapidly field proven commercial technology.

Wahid Nawabi, AeroVironment’s chairman, president and chief executive, commented: “In today’s battlespace, adaptability is no longer an advantage, it’s a requirement.” He added that the P550 lets manoeuvre forces reconfigure quickly and operate across domains in contested environments.

The P550 is a Group 2 eVTOL system built on a modular open systems approach, allowing operators to integrate third-party payloads, datalinks and mission planning software. It carries up to 15 pounds of sensors, including enhanced lethality options, and offers up to five hours of battery endurance.

Operators can reconfigure the aircraft in under five minutes, swapping payloads and batteries without tools. The system supports intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, precision strike, electronic warfare and communications relay missions across air, ground and maritime domains.

Trace Stevenson, AeroVironment’s president of autonomous systems, commented that operators need systems adaptable at mission speed. He added that the P550 reduces operator burden while expanding what a single platform can deliver.

Learn more on AeroVironment’s website

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