Military UAV Market Gets a Little Bit Smaller with Merger

AeroVironment has announced its anticipated acquisition of Tomahawk Robotics, a firm focused on developing AI-enabled robotic control systems.

The company hopes that their new purchase will work some magic in improving the autonomous functionality and interoperability of their best-selling semiautonomous loitering munitions and uncrewed vehicles. Perhaps most famous in the AeroVironment collection is their Switchblade 300 and 600 loitering munitions system, which gained a measure of notoriety from their use against Russian targets in Ukraine. Tomahawk's expertise in connection a plethora of dissimilar vehicles and systems should prove useful for AeroVironment, allowing each of their product offerings to interface and share data in a network answerable to one common controller scheme.

Another prized element of the Tomahawk Robotics portfolio is its Kinesis Ecosystem, an "an AI-enhanced, open architecture common control system that seamlessly integrates the network of battle-proven unmanned expeditionary vehicles, sensors, and third-party software onto a single pane of glass." When used correctly, the Kinesis Ecosysem provides "targeted situational awareness and precision strike capabilities for human-machine teams across the battlespace."

“The acquisition of Tomahawk Robotics will not only provide AeroVironment with strong new members of our team, but a quality brand and products that are widely respected in the industry,” said AeroVironment’s CEO and Chairman Wahid Nawabi. “Tomahawk Robotics will become part of the small UAS business unit within AeroVironment’s Unmanned Systems segment. We intend to retain all of their workforce and existing facilities in Florida. We will support all existing Tomahawk Robotics customers and their products will remain platform agnostic to the market and within the industry. We also plan to introduce Tomahawk Robotics solutions to AeroVironment’s growing network of more than 55 allied nations.”

“Combining features of our Crysalis operating system with Tomahawk Robotics’ AI-enhanced Kinesis platform means pairing the best common controller technology with the most ubiquitous unmanned systems on the market today,” said AeroVironment’s Senior Vice President of Unmanned Systems Trace Stevenson. Tomahawk Robotics’ Kinesis control system was integrated into AeroVironment’s small unmanned aircraft family of systems including Raven® B and Puma 3 AE in 2022.

“Acquiring Tomahawk Robotics strengthens our value to our customers as we will be uniquely qualified to support multiple platforms and offer the best solution for their operational needs,” continued Nawabi. “Tomahawk Robotics’ products will enable AeroVironment’s solutions to achieve an elevated Modular Open System Approach (MOSA) desired by our customers, and the opportunity to expand into new and adjacent markets for interconnected soldiers with a Common Operating Picture enabled by AI and autonomy.”

FMI: www.avinc.com