This U.S. Company Is Cashing In On Ukraine’s War

Forbes

The Russia-Ukraine war has ushered in a new era of unmanned combat. Investors and the Pentagon are betting that AeroVironment can produce deadly drones at an industrial scale.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremybogaisky/2024/10/03/aerovironment-russia-ukraine-drones/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, this U.S. company is cashing in on Ukraine's war with killer drones that

00:07fit in a backpack.

00:10On a hot August morning in the foothills of the Santa Susana Mountains north of Los Angeles,

00:15Waheed Nawabi, the CEO of drone maker Aerovironment, is bouncing down a dirt road in a Chevy Traverse.

00:23Somewhere in the skies overhead, one of his company's gull-winged Puma electric surveillance

00:28planes is hunting Nawabi and a Forbes reporter riding with him, and it's doing so quietly

00:34and autonomously.

00:36The trim, affable Nawabi shares the screen of a tablet computer that shows an aerial

00:41view of the grassy canyon they're driving through, relayed from the Puma.

00:46Thirteen hundred of these very small planes have been supplied to Ukraine for the price

00:50tag of $318 million.

00:53It uses computer vision to navigate, comparing landmarks to internal maps as it zeroes in

00:59on a target it can autonomously seek, a tank, rocket launcher, or in this case, a white

01:05SUV.

01:06They are capabilities Aerovironment deployed in Ukraine last year to overcome Russian jamming

01:11of GPS signals and communications links.

01:15Nawabi, pointing to the vehicle they're riding in, which now appears on the tablet display,

01:20outlined in a white box, says, quote,

01:23Look, it found us.

01:26In the Russo-Ukrainian war, what might come next is a pinpoint strike from something else.

01:31The deadly Switchblade, a weapon central to Nawabi's ambitions to make Aerovironment a

01:36multi-billion dollar company in the next three to five years, up from $717 million in revenue

01:43in its fiscal 2024.

01:46The Switchblade is a loitering munition, an expensive type of one-way kamikaze drone designed

01:51to circle the battlefield, awaiting a good opportunity to obliterate its target.

01:57Both the Russians and Ukrainians are using them in a war where dense networks of anti-aircraft

02:01systems have pushed fighter jets and bombers to the margins.

02:06Starting in 2022, the U.S. supplied Ukraine with 700 Switchblade 300s, a $50,000 missile

02:14small enough to be carried in a soldier's rucksack and launched with minimal effort.

02:18It was quietly used by U.S. special forces in Iraq and Afghanistan in the past decade

02:24to take down high-value insurgents at a distance of as much as six miles.

02:29More recently, Ukraine has been hunting valuable Russian air defense batteries with a newer,

02:34larger version, the Switchblade 600, a $200,000 weapon with a 25-mile range.

02:42Ukraine has received hundreds, with another 600 promised in a recent U.S. aid package.

02:48The Ukraine war has been a buzzing laboratory for unmanned aircraft, where makers test and

02:53improve their designs.

02:55Aerovironments got off to a rough start against Russian electronic warfare, which reportedly

03:00has hampered many sophisticated Western drones, but the company is now looking like one of

03:05the winners.

03:06Nuavi says modifications to overcome jamming and better training have pushed Switchblade's

03:11effectiveness rate north of 80%.

03:16Last month, the army handed Aerovironment a contract worth up to $990 million, the company's

03:22largest ever, to cover Switchblade purchases through 2029.

03:27And the company is in the running for contracts from other branches of the military and foreign

03:31allies as they accelerate their adoption of drones based on their deadly effectiveness

03:36in Ukraine.

03:38Plenty of companies are chasing the opportunity.

03:39A study last year by the Vertical Flight Society counted 123 entities in 32 countries that

03:46were producing one-way attack drones.

03:49They include the Israeli pioneers of loitering munitions, like Elbit Systems, and buzzy defense

03:54tech startups like Anduril, which has supplied a larger, longer-range winged drone, the Altius

04:00600, to Ukraine in undisclosed numbers.

04:04Anduril recently raised $1.5 billion and is plowing some of that into building a giant

04:091.5 million square foot factory called Arsenal One.

04:14But Aerovironment, which has quietly been the Defense Department's main supplier of

04:18small drones for the past two decades, may have the relationships, technology, and industrial

04:24experience to better satisfy the U.S. military's sudden desire for unmanned systems en masse.

04:32For full coverage, check out Jeremy Bogaski's piece on Forbes.com.

04:37This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.

04:40Thanks for tuning in.

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