Oshkosh Defense will build Grid Aero's Lifter

Oshkosh Defense will industrialise Grid Aero's Lifter, Protolabs has added 50% Multi Jet Fusion capacity citing aerospace, defence and drone demand, and Dronamics is putting funding in place for Black Swan production.

Oshkosh Defense will work with Grid Aero on design for manufacturability, production planning and supply chain optimisation, and ultimately build the Lifter autonomous modular payload aircraft at scale using Oshkosh's Wisconsin manufacturing infrastructure and workforce. The partnership puts the production base of an established defence manufacturer behind a Silicon Valley aircraft design. It is one of several steps this week by uncrewed aircraft developers moving from prototypes into production: Mach Industries is scaling five defence platforms into production on a manufacturing management system built to grow with it, Dronamics has agreed a merger whose proceeds are intended to scale Black Swan production, and Protolabs has added printing capacity citing demand from aerospace, defence and drone companies.

Mach Industries is scaling five defence platforms from development into production and runs its operation on Manufacturo's manufacturing management platform to keep workflows traceable and compliance-ready as output grows. Manufacturo says the Huntington Beach company has taken five products from concept to flight since the partnership began, most recently an autonomous strike aircraft from concept to first flight in 71 days, and that sustaining that pace at production scale requires a digital backbone that enforces structured, traceable processes without becoming a bottleneck. Tyler Pancake, Mach's VP of manufacturing, says the manufacturing system has to move as fast as the company and scale with it from first builds through full production.

On the supplier side, Protolabs has increased its HP Jet Fusion 5600 series capacity by 50% and attributes the step to rising demand from aerospace, defence and drone companies. The company's Multi Jet Fusion revenue through its US factories grew more than 40% year on year through the third quarter of 2026, driven in part by drone customers, and it now serves more than 100 drone manufacturers. Revenue from that segment is up more than 90% since 2023. Suresh Krishna, president and CEO, ties the expansion to drone and aerospace customers scaling production and needing lightweight, production-ready parts.

Dronamics is seeking capital for production through a public listing. It has signed a definitive business combination agreement with GP-Act III Acquisition Corp., and on completion of the proposed transaction the combined company is expected to list on Nasdaq. The agreement sets a US$400 million pre-money equity value for Dronamics and an estimated pro-forma enterprise value of about US$500 million. Dronamics intends to put transaction proceeds into scaling production of its Black Swan cargo aircraft, accelerating commercial operations and supporting growth across autonomous logistics, national security, critical minerals exploration and sovereign aerospace. The company already holds IATA and ICAO airline designator codes as Europe's first licensed cargo drone airline.

Also this week: De Havilland Canada has agreed up to $2.5 billion in financing from the Government of Canada and Export Development Canada to double DHC-515 production. The French DGA has qualified the VTOL variant of Airbus Helicopters' U010 Aliaca for French Navy service. And GKN Aerospace has become the first company to gain Nadcap accreditation for laser wire directed energy deposition.