Swarm Aero has signed contracts to advance the development structure for aircraft parts in support of US Air Force initiatives.
Swarm Aero has signed contracts worth $10 million to advance the development structure for aircraft parts in support of US Air Force initiatives.
The agreements, awarded by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), include refinement of the California-based firm’s proprietary high-rate composite manufacturing method and the production of aerospace components for the service.
The deals expand Swarm Aero’s in-house work since 2022 to build a next-generation, affordable approach to manufacturing composite airframe assemblies at scale.
“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.”
Oliver Palmer, chief revenue officer and co-founder at Swarm Aero, praised AFRL’s structural and materials teams as “consistent leaders in the industry” progressing cost-reduction methods.
“We are honored to partner with them as we bring forward our novel manufacturing process,” Palmer stated.
Manufacturing Beyond Defense Applications
Swarm Aero’s manufacturing research aligns closely with broader US defense efforts to field high-volume unmanned aerial systems.
Sources noted that it lays the foundation for the company’s ongoing development of oversized drones capable of operating in autonomous swarms.
In the future, the company expects to leverage the same production framework across additional defense, civil, and commercial aircraft platforms.
