Joby secures more Air Force autonomy funding

Additional funding awarded through AFWERX has taken the Air Force’s total commitment to nearly $37 million and raised the ceiling on Joby Aviation’s operational testing contract to $50 million.

The US Air Force has awarded additional funding to accelerate Joby Aviation’s autonomous flight technology, bringing its total commitment to nearly $37 million and raising the ceiling on Joby’s operational testing contract to $50 million.

Awarded through AFWERX, the innovation arm of the US Air Force, the funding supports continued development of Joby’s autonomy software and expanded operational testing in the Pacific, as the Air Force moves toward sustained autonomous logistics operations. The contracts will focus on executing follow-on Pacific military exercises, alongside ongoing design updates and safety reviews to extend the operational capabilities of the autonomy stack.

The expansion builds on Joby’s nationwide J208 cross-country flights, part of its 2026 Electric Skies campaign. In the first autonomous flight across the United States, a Cessna Caravan equipped with Joby’s autonomy system flew from Concord, California to North Carolina’s Outer Banks with zero control inputs from its onboard safety pilot. Across the multi-leg tour spanning 24 states, Joby demonstrated fully autonomous taxiing, take-offs, route navigation and landings under remote supervision from up to 2,537 miles away.

The system integrates advanced sensors, onboard computing and automated flight controls, with a ground-based operator monitoring the flight and able to update routes and communicate with air traffic control in real time. Building on the autonomy stack acquired from Xwing in 2024, it has completed more than 400 fully autonomous flights to date. During the REFORPAC exercises in August 2025, the aircraft in Hawaii was operated remotely from Guam, nearly 4,000 miles away. During Air Force readiness exercise Agile Flag, it delivered critical replacement parts 24 hours faster than conventional logistics.

JoeBen Bevirt, founder and CEO of Joby Aviation, says: “We designed this system to be platform-agnostic, letting us quickly bring advanced autonomy to a wide range of high-utility aircraft. This funding will accelerate our path to sustained uncrewed operations.”

Kate Brown, contested logistics tactical airlift lead at AFWERX, adds: “Our goal is to sustain cargo operations in contested environments while reducing risk to aircrews and preserving crewed aircraft for missions that require them.”

Joby’s planned acquisition of Resonant Sciences, expected to close early in 2027, is set to further accelerate its defence capabilities. Its autonomous J208 operations are also part of the White House-backed eVTOL Integration Pilot Programme (eIPP) initiatives in Utah and North Carolina. In these regions the aircraft will help establish autonomous routes to move critical cargo, medical supplies and logistics shipments, generating operational data to inform the FAA’s evolving regulatory frameworks for autonomous flight.