AeroVironment

AeroVironment is an American defence technology company founded in 1971 by aeronautical engineer Paul B. MacCready Jr. and headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It designs and manufactures small unmanned aircraft systems, loitering munitions and, since acquiring BlueHalo in 2025, counter-UAS and directed-energy systems for the US Department of Defense and allied militaries.

History and products

AeroVironment built its reputation on very small, man-portable "Group 1" and "Group 2" reconnaissance UAS: the hand-launched Raven, Puma and Wasp families collectively number tens of thousands of airframes delivered to more than 30 countries. The company later applied the same small-airframe expertise to precision strike with its Switchblade tube-launched loitering munitions, first fielded in 2011 and supplied to Ukraine from 2022. AeroVironment also builds larger systems, including the Quantix Recon mapping UAS, the Shrike quadcopter and Vapor helicopter UAS, and has worked on experimental high-altitude solar aircraft such as the Global Observer.

Products on this site

The Raven, Puma 3 AE and Wasp AE are AeroVironment's core hand-launched reconnaissance UAS. The Switchblade is its tube-launched loitering munition family, and the Shrike and Vapor are quadcopter and helicopter-configuration UAS. The Quantix Recon is a hybrid fixed-wing mapping drone, and Puma LE is a lighter variant of the Puma family.