The verified answer
As of Oct 2026, DEPLOY verifies AEVEX Aerospace: 1 model, 1 deployment across 1 region, $320.0M raised, 1 active incident. 1 source back the record.
CategoryDrones
Appears inMilitary & defense drones
Overview
AEVEX Aerospace is a California-based defense technology company producing autonomous unmanned aircraft, including the Phoenix Ghost and Disruptor strike drones used extensively in Ukraine. The company delivered over 5,000 drones to Ukraine with $582 million in Pentagon contracts, making it the largest U.S. drone supplier to the conflict.
AEVEX went public on NYSE under ticker AVEX in April 2026, raising $320 million in its IPO. The company also provides ISR services for wildfire response through the FIRIS program in California.
Verified record
- Verified deployments
- 1 deployment on file
- Active incidents
- 1 incident on file
Valuation of record
DEPLOY VERIFIEDPriced roundIPO post-money
Key facts
CEO
Founder
Tickersee public companies →
IPO date
Drones delivered to Ukraine
Pentagon contracts
Data & sources
Web sources
1
1 source backing this record.View all →
Models (1)
View all models →Partnerships
Every company AEVEX Aerospace has built with, alongside the ones only announced in a press release.
Most-frequent partners
- 1US Air Force1× joint
Most recent
- AEVEX x US Air Force Strike Drones2026-06-30with US Air Forceoperating
AEVEX Aerospace on the deployment map
View the global map1 verified deployment across 1 region, newest verified Apr 2022. Explore where AEVEX Aerospace's robots are operating, by place and type.
View the full AEVEX Aerospace deployment record →
Relationships
Current leadership (2)
- Brian Raduenz Founder & Executive Chairmanreported, not verified
- Roger Wells Chief Executive Officerreported, not verified
Founders (1)
- Brian Raduenzcofounder
Safety record
Only active incidents are counted. Retracted incidents are excluded from this summary but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.
Full safety record: incidents, sourcing, and exposure data →
Incidents affecting AEVEX Aerospace (1)
- US Air Force awards AEVEX 0M contract for GPS-resistant autonomous strike drones2026-06-30 · Regulatory action
Includes incidents linked directly to this company, to its models, or to deployments of its models or under its operation. Retracted incidents are excluded from this view but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.
Operator customers (1)
- AEVEX Aerospace1 deployment
Recent coverage
AEVEX Aerospace in third-party press
Peers
99 peers across 1 segment. Every AEVEX Aerospace competitor derived from shared form-factor and application-domain edges.
drone(99)
57 companies in this segment · moderately_concentrated (HHI 1809.2177305910177) · leader Anduril Industries at 3057%
- Alta Aresdirect competitor(inferred)strong
- BRINC Dronesdirect competitor(inferred)strong
- Darkhivedirect competitor(inferred)strong
- Dedronedirect competitor(inferred)strong
- Firestorm Labsdirect competitor(inferred)strong
- Havocdirect competitor(inferred)strong
Financial state
- Total funding
- $320.0M
- Reporting basis
- private_reported
- Revenue disclosed
- $216700000 (private_reported)
- Lifecycle stage
- growth
- Counterparty risk class
- low
Each numeric field carries its own basis marker. Aggregators report a number; this surface preserves the source class so verification depth travels with the value.
Partnerships
1 total · 1 operating
Every company AEVEX Aerospace has built with, alongside the ones only announced in a press release.
Most recent
- AEVEX x US Air Force Strike Drones2026-06-30with US Air Forceoperating
Most-frequent partners
- 1US Air Force1× joint
All 1 partnerships
open in the atlas →- AEVEX x US Air Force Strike DroneswithUS Air Forcedeployment2026-06-30operating
Funding rounds (1)
- IPO2026-04-17
$320M(reported) · $3.2B post
Investors: Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Baird
Timeline
Every recorded move in AEVEX Aerospace’s history, most recent first: funding rounds, partnerships, acquisitions, supply-chain starts, key hires, and press.
PartnershipAEVEX x US Air Force Strike Drones
2026-06-30US Air Force awarded AEVEX 0M contract with 7M initial funding for GPS-resistant autonomous strike drones for one-way attack missions.
Funding roundIPO funding round
2026-04-17IPO raising $320000000
Recent activity
Every change to this record is dated, sourced, and independently verified where marked.
- Record createdJul 3, 2026
Added to the verified registry
- Incident recordedJun 30, 2026
US Air Force awards AEVEX 0M contract for GPS-resistant autonomous strike drones
- Deployment verifiedVerifiedApr 1, 2022
AEVEX Strike Drone at Ukraine
Sources (1)
Common questions
What is AEVEX Aerospace?
What does AEVEX Aerospace make?
Is AEVEX Aerospace publicly traded?
Who competes with AEVEX Aerospace?
Who is the CEO of AEVEX Aerospace?
How can I invest in AEVEX Aerospace?
Where is AEVEX Aerospace headquartered?
How much funding has AEVEX Aerospace raised?
Who owns AEVEX Aerospace?
Where does AEVEX Aerospace operate robots?
How many robots has AEVEX Aerospace deployed?
Is AEVEX Aerospace a top robotics company?
When was AEVEX Aerospace founded?
Are there any incidents involving AEVEX Aerospace?
Is AEVEX Aerospace safe?
Methodology: Verified · 1 source (no primary) · last reviewed 2026-08-21
Verification posture
Verified
Low confidence
Review state
Stable
Last reviewed 2026-08-21
Sources by quality tier
- 1
- unclassified
- Unclassified source
The framework is documented at /methodology. Corrections at /corrections. Reviewer: DEPLOY editorial team.
Methodology surface for AEVEX Aerospace.Peer companies
- Amazon25 models
- Anduril Industries7 models
- DJI7 models
- Skydio6 models
- SIYI Technology5 models
- Autel Robotics4 models
In the press
Recent coverage mentioning AEVEX Aerospace from third-party publications. Automatically surfaced; not part of the verified registry record.
U.S. drone maker AEVEX picks up another kamikaze drone deal
AEVEX Corp. has won $20.5 million in new U.S. government contracts to build and develop one-way attack drones, the company announced September 9. AEVEX did not name the government…
AEVEX and Divergent target faster autonomous drone development and surge production through AI-enabled digital manufacturing
AEVEX and Divergent Technologies have agreed to collaborate on a next-generation autonomous aircraft platform designed for emerging operational requirements.
AEVEX, Divergent team up on new autonomous aircraft
EVEX Corp. and Divergent Technologies said Tuesday they will jointly develop a new autonomous aircraft platform, combining AEVEX’s unmanned systems work with Divergent’s…
AEVEX wins $41 million U.S. contract for one-way attack systems, invests in drone production capacity for contested operations
AEVEX Corp. has received a $41 million contract to deliver one-way attack systems to U.S. government customers.
AEVEX wins $41m contract for one-way attack drones
AEVEX Aerospace has been awarded a $41m contract to supply one-way attack uncrewed systems to US government customers.
US chooses AEVEX to supply scalable attack drones for contested environments
A US defense technology company specializing in autonomous unmanned systems has secured a $41 million...
Reddit Climbs, Applied Materials, Gemini Fall | Stock Movers
On this episode of Stock Movers: Drone companies including AeroVironment Inc. (AVAV), Aevex Corp. (AVEX), and Unusual Machines Inc. (UMAC) rose on news that the Trump…
AEVEX revenue nearly doubles, plans $650M acquisition
AEVEX Corp. reported second quarter 2026 revenue of $201.8 million, nearly double the $101.1 million it posted a year earlier, and swung to a net profit of $6.7 million after…
AEVEX wins $50M deal for GPS-resistant strike drones
AEVEX secured a $50M U.S. Air Force contract with $27M initial funding to expand unmanned mission systems with GPS-resistant capabilities.
AEVEX Corp. Announces Pricing of Initial Public Offering
AEVEX priced its IPO at shares beginning trading on NYSE under ticker AVEX, raising $320 million.
Revealed: The Mysterious Ghost Drones Of The Ukraine War
Forbes revealed AEVEX as the maker of Phoenix Ghost drones used in Ukraine, with over 5,000 delivered and $582 million in Pentagon contracts.
Machine-readable surfaces
- Markdown mirror: /companies/aevex.md
- RSS feed: /companies/aevex/feed.xml
- JSON-LD: embedded in this page’s head
- REST API: /v1/companies/ba358703-a726-4efe-9020-cdf6fa2a2b27
- Revision history: /companies/aevex/history
- Data documentation: /data
- Query this programmatically: Deploy MCP
Peer companies
- Amazon25 models
- Anduril Industries7 models
- DJI7 models
- Skydio6 models
- SIYI Technology5 models
- Autel Robotics4 models
Video
Aevex CEO Roger Wells speaks on IPO and company direction on Bloomberg Technology. -------- Like this video? Subscribe to Bloomberg Technology on YouTube: ht
At Northern Strike 24-2, AEVEX Aerospace deployed its Dagger, Disruptor, and Dominator loitering munitions, also known as launched effects or one-way attack dro
AEVEX Aerospace shows off their ATLAS drone at AFA’s Warfare Symposium in Denver:
The AEVEX Disruptor is a Group III precision strike system designed for precision targeting across air, land, and sea tactical scenarios. Its autonomous navigat
Get an inside look at the future of maritime autonomy as the AEVEX Mako Lite Unmanned Surface Vessel (USV) takes center stage at SOF Week 2025 in Tampa, Florida
AEVEX delivers advanced autonomous systems and navigation technologies that give U.S. and allied forces a decisive edge in the modern battlespace. Through innov
AEVEX's own Darin Whitman speaks to the crowd as the AEVEX Aerospace Geo-MMS Lidar payload takes to the skies under the Skyfront Perimeter 8 UAS during the Comm
AEVEX Aerospace expands into Roswell, New Mexico, with the opening of a new aerospace training center this past week. This expansion not only will bring direct
AEVEX drones, AEVEX Aerospace, military drone, UAV, ISR drone, reconnaissance drone, strike drone, loitering munition, electro optical sensors, infrared sensors
The Droning Company interviewed Darin Whitman from AEVEX Aerospace at Xponential 2023 in Denver Colorado. During the interview, Darin shared with us some of the
At DSEI 2025 in London, United Kingdom, we had the chance to take an exclusive look at our collaboration with AEVEX. Join Eli Lockwood from AEVEX and Ernestas
Heat Index
Category contender77/100
A composite of competitive footprint, funding, press velocity, active partnerships, and supply-chain edges. Different from the Intelligence score below (which is per-form-factor productization). Non-robotics companies cap at 25.
Reality vs attention
AEVEX Aerospace draws attention at the 78th percentile but verifies reality at the 9th percentile among aerial robots. Hype Gap +69.2, 8th widest among aerial robots.
6-month trend
Analysis
Safety profile within acceptable range for category. Well-capitalized with $320M raised and recent funding activity. Deployment footprint remains limited relative to category peers.
Signal flags
Dimension breakdown
Verified signal
Attention (reach, not merit)
DEPLOY Intelligence scores are computed from verified registry data: confirmed deployments, disclosed funding rounds, regulatory filings, active job listings, video viewership, and press coverage. Confidence ratings reflect data availability. Scores update nightly.
DEPLOY Indices — verified vs claimed
Last computed: Oct 2, 2026