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AV Awarded $97 Million U.S. Army Contract to Advance Next-Generation Sensor Testing
March 05, 2026
ARLINGTON, Va. – March 5, 2026 – AeroVironment, Inc. (“AV”) (NASDAQ: AVAV), a leading provider of advanced research and development solutions for national security missions, today announced it has been awarded a three-year, $97.4 million contract under the U.S. Army’s Aviation and Missile Technology Consortium (AMTC) to develop and deliver the Generative Environment for the Next Era of Spectral Imaging Stimulators (GENESIS)—a next-generation Hardware-in-the-Loop (HWIL) test environment for validating advanced missile defense and electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensor systems.
AV will design and integrate prototype test environments—including flight motion table and cryogenic space chamber facilities—at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, to accelerate the next generation of Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD). The unified environment will enable joint planning, modeling, and validation across space, air, and missile defense domains in support of the Combat Capabilities Development Command Aviation & Missile Center (DEVCOM AvMC), and its government partners.
“True innovation in defense starts long before technology reaches the battlefield—it starts in how we test, refine, and prove it,” said Mary Clum, President of Space, Cyber and Directed Energy at AV. “By creating realistic, repeatable, and scalable testing ecosystems, we’re helping the Army accelerate innovation, strengthen deterrence, and ensure our warfighters maintain a decisive advantage in every domain.”
GENESIS represents a generational leap in Hardware-in-the-Loop (HWIL) capability, integrating advanced multi-spectral projection, ultra–high frame-rate imaging, precision optics, and intelligent facility control systems to recreate complex, real-world environments with unmatched fidelity. By combining real hardware with simulated environments, HWIL and Scene Generation enable realistic, dynamic testing of sensors, guidance, and control systems, allowing DEVCOM AvMC to validate and field technologies faster and with greater confidence, while refining performance, reducing risk, and strengthening the industrial base for future military applications.
“GENESIS shows what’s possible when industry and government align around a shared vision of innovation,” said Johnathan Jones, Senior Vice President for Cyber and Mission Solutions at AV. “We’re pushing the boundaries of sensor testing—advancing realism and precision to help the U.S. military accelerate development, reduce risk, and deliver mission-ready technologies that preserve our nation’s decisive advantage and give warfighters the most capable, reliable systems possible.”
About AeroVironment, Inc.
AeroVironment ("AV") (NASDAQ: AVAV) is a defense technology leader delivering integrated capabilities across air, land, sea, space, and cyber. The Company develops and deploys autonomous systems, loitering munitions, counter-UAS technologies, space-based platforms, directed energy systems, and cyber and electronic warfare capabilities—built to meet the mission needs of today’s warfighter and tomorrow’s conflicts. At the core of these technologies lies AV_Halo, a modular, mission-ready suite of AI-powered software tools that empowers warfighters and enables full-battlefield dominance: detect, decide, deliver. With a national manufacturing footprint and a deep innovation pipeline, AV delivers proven systems and future-defining capabilities at speed, scale, and operational relevance. For more information, visit www.avinc.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
Certain statements in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements" as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are made on the basis of current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, economic, competitive, governmental and technological factors outside of our control, that may cause our business, strategy or actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, our ability to perform under existing contracts and obtain additional contracts; changes in the regulatory environment; the activities of competitors; failure of the markets in which we operate to grow; failure to expand into new markets; failure to develop new products or integrate new technology with current products; and general economic and business conditions in the United States and elsewhere in the world. For a further list and description of such risks and uncertainties, see the reports we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We do not intend, and undertake no obligation, to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
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