Research and development on high-rate composite aerostructure manufacturing techniques to advance low-cost, large aircraft at scale
Swarm’s Fayetteville, Arkansas Advanced Manufacturing Center
OXNARD, Calif., Aug. 10, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Swarm Aero (Swarm), a developer of large uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) swarms, today announced over $10 million in contracts with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to perform research and development on the company’s novel, high-rate composite manufacturing approach and produce aircraft parts for the U.S. Air Force. Since 2022, Swarm has been quietly refining a new approach to manufacturing composite airframes making it possible to produce aircraft at high volume. The result is a class of highly capable aircraft built for a fraction of the cost of comparable platforms, opening up a kind of affordable mass production never before seen in modern aerospace.
“Since our first engineering hire, Swarm has invested in manufacturing and design in tandem. We are not designing or even building one aircraft only to then start thinking about how to manufacture it at scale. We have designed our manufacturing processes to enable us to deliver aircraft at the scale our customers require,” said Peter Kalogiannis, CEO and co-founder, Swarm Aero. “Our team has a strong track record both in building large, novel aircraft extremely quickly and in delivering aircraft at volume. We’re looking forward to leveraging our manufacturing approach to build cost-efficient flyable aircraft components using our unique methods.”
“The Air Force Research Lab’s structures and materials & manufacturing teams have been consistent leaders in the industry and champions for introducing new processes that can reduce cost. We are honored to partner with them as we bring forward our novel manufacturing process. They both are tremendous partners and are well placed within the Department of War’s engineering ecosystem to evaluate what we are doing,” said Oliver Palmer, CRO and co-founder, Swarm Aero.
The implications of Swarm’s manufacturing approach extend well beyond a single platform. The same manufacturing approach gives Swarm a foundation to develop additional aircraft for defense, civil, and commercial customers, and points toward broader applications of the underlying technology across composite manufacturing more generally.
About Swarm Aero
Swarm Aero was founded in 2022 and is headquartered in Oxnard, CA with locations in Spokane, WA, Fayetteville, AR, and Washington D.C.. The team has extraordinary experience working with the Department of War to fulfill critical needs and requirements as well as decades of aerospace accomplishments across Scaled Composites, Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Airbus, Archer, and others. The team has previously completed billions of dollars in contracts involving DOW, has built software platforms supporting billions of users, and employed cutting-edge AI in critical applications. Swarm is backed by leading venture firms including Deviation Capital, Silent Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Construct Capital, Coatue, MaC Venture Capital, a16z, and Founders Fund. To learn more please visit: https://www.swarm.aero/
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