Red Dragon®
03/30/2026
Solution: Red Dragon®
Press Release
AV Unleashes Red Dragon: A New Breed of Fully Autonomous Capable, GPS-Denied One-Way Attack Unmanned Aircraft Systems
05/06/2025
ARLINGTON, Va. – May 6, 2025 – AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVAV) (“AV”) today announced the launch of Red Dragon™, a fully autonomous capable, software-defined unmanned aircraft system (UAS) designed for one-way attack missions in high-threat, GPS-denied, and communications-degraded environments. Developed as part of AV’s expanding portfolio of tactical autonomy, Red Dragon is built on the AV’s AVACORE™ shared software architecture—enabling rapid development, scalable manufacturing, and modular mission integration. AV’s industry leading SPOTR-Edge™ perception system enables detection and classification of targets to aid the operator in making decisions with confidence via AV’s proprietary DDIL radio system.
Red Dragon delivers a combination of autonomy, electronic warfare resilience, and tactical flexibility previously unavailable in its class. It is designed to penetrate contested airspace and operate effectively in denied, disrupted, intermittent, and low-bandwidth (DDIL) environments. The system is capable of autonomous execution of mission objectives without reliance on continuous operator input or satellite navigation.
Designed for manufacturing at scale, Red Dragon enables mass production, rapid deployment, and simplified logistics to meet operational demands. It is optimized for cross-domain use—across air, land, and maritime—and is designed so small teams can be trained quickly and effectively.
“Red Dragon represents a significant step forward in autonomous lethality,” said Jeff Rodrian, Executive Vice President, MacCready Works. “By combining advanced autonomy, GNSS-independent navigation, and mass producibility, Red Dragon delivers a mission-ready system designed for today’s contested battlespace. It is the first of a new generation of autonomous systems built for scale, speed, and operational relevance.”
“At AV, our mission is to change the way wars are fought—by putting the safety, survivability, and operational advantage of our warfighters first,” said Wahid Nawabi, President & CEO of AV. “Red Dragon reflects the kind of breakthrough capability that ensures U.S. and allied forces stay ahead in an increasingly complex threat environment. It’s not just about autonomy—it’s about delivering trusted, mission-defining technologies that protect lives and reshape the future of defense.”
Red Dragon is the first in a rapidly growing family of platforms under development at AV with a common software and hardware architecture for mission-specific variants. Each shares a common software and autonomy architecture designed to support rapid evolution across domains and use cases. This enables evolutions at the speed of software and warfare.
Press Release
AV’s Cutting-Edge One-Way Attack UAS Secures DIU Backing Under Project Artemis
03/14/2025
ARLINGTON, Va., March 14, 2025 – AeroVironment (AV), the leader in defense technology, has secured a contract with the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) to accelerate the deployment of next-generation autonomous precision munitions.
As part of its strategic expansion into a new sector of the multi-billion-dollar defense market, AV has been awarded an Other Transaction Authority (OT) award by the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) as part of Project Artemis, an initiative launched to rapidly test and operationally evaluate long-range, one-way uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) for the Department of Defense (DoD). This strategic effort, sponsored by the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment (A&S), is driven by urgent congressional direction to accelerate the deployment of innovative precision-strike platforms in contested environments.
This award aligns with Secretary Pete Hegseth’s directive in a memorandum issued on February 18, 2025, which exempts uncrewed systems from broad defense budget cuts and underscores the Pentagon’s commitment to advancing autonomous capabilities as a critical component of modern military operations.
AV’s fully autonomous, GPS-denied, precision-strike, one-way attack UAS is engineered for mass production and designed to operate in disrupted, disconnected, intermittent, and low-bandwidth environments, ensuring unmatched resilience against advanced electronic warfare (EW) threats. With a software-defined architecture, scalable manufacturing capabilities, and advanced GNSS-independent navigation, AV’s platform rapidly delivers a next-generation solution for modern conflict. AV’s AVACORE™ autonomy software and SPOTR-Edge™ computer vision are critical components enabling these capabilities quickly and at scale.
“Project Artemis represents a major step in transforming how the DoD identifies, tests, and deploys asymmetric capabilities to the warfighter at speed and scale,” said Jeff Rodrian, AV’s senior vice president and general manager of MacCready Works. “AV’s next-generation software-defined autonomous one-way attack UAS is already in the hands of early adopters and is now part of the Blue UAS ecosystem. Through this DIU contract, we look forward to quickly expanding its deployment to meet the urgent needs of today’s battlespace.”
As part of this initiative, AV will participate in aggressive testing and integration efforts, to demonstrate prototype success by the end of May 2025. These evaluations will provide critical data to inform procurement decisions for the Services and Combatant Commands, delivering options years ahead of traditional acquisition timelines.
The demand for long-range, autonomous precision strike systems has never been greater. AV is committed to delivering cutting-edge solutions that ensure U.S. and allied forces maintain an operational advantage in contested environments.