AeroVironment has announced plans to invest $100 million in a new campus in Moorpark, California.
AeroVironment (AV) has announced plans to invest $100 million in a new campus in Moorpark, California, consolidating five Southern California sites into a single hub for defense research, engineering, and production.
The company said the 20-acre (8-hectare) site will bring together laboratories, design and prototyping spaces, and production facilities as it seeks to increase capacity and speed up development of systems for US and allied customers.
AV expects the move to make it easier for teams to work across research, engineering, design, and manufacturing, while giving the company room to accommodate future technologies and changing military requirements.
“This is about how fast we can move from an idea to getting a system in the hands of the warfighter, and how much more capability we can deliver,” AV COO Rob Smith said.
Renovation and construction are expected to begin in fiscal 2028, with employees moving in phases and the campus expected to become fully operational in 2029.
Driving AeroVironment's Expansion
AeroVironment's planned campus follows a series of major US contracts across its portfolio.
In July, the US Army awarded AV a $117.3-million production contract for its P550 electric vertical takeoff and landing unmanned aircraft system under the army's Long Range Reconnaissance program. This came after a similar contract worth $117 million awarded in March, and another one in December 2025.
Introduced in 2024, the P550 is an AI-powered drone that can fly for more than five hours in signal-denied environments and support third-party payloads for different missions.
AV CEO Wahid Nawabi said the latest infrastructure investment will deepen AV’s presence in California, where the company was founded more than five decades ago.
The move also follows AV’s announcement that it will create a joint venture in Greece focusing on local production of drones, loitering munitions, and counter-drone systems for European customers.
