US Drone Manufacturers 2026: Every Maker and What It Builds

FlightBrief counts 67 companies headquartered in the United States that design and sell their own uncrewed aircraft. They range from General Atomics, whose Predator line the company says has flown more than 9 million hours, to makers of drones that fit in a soldier’s pocket.

No official list of them exists. The Pentagon’s Blue UAS list holds only small drones cleared for military buyers. The Drone Dominance Program publishes only its own orders, and federal award records sit on USAspending.gov. The lists that rank for the question are a parts seller’s marketing page and undated roundups that cite nothing.

The table above puts those pieces in one place, with a source for every row.

Key facts

• 67 US companies design and sell their own uncrewed aircraft by FlightBrief’s count, and 35 of them have an aircraft on the Blue UAS list.
• California is home to 27 of them, more than any other state. Virginia, home to several defence primes, has seven.
• Of the 66, 43 are privately held, 11 trade under their own ticker and 12 belong to a larger group.
• The Air Force awarded production contracts for its Collaborative Combat Aircraft, uncrewed jets that fly alongside fighters, to General Atomics and Anduril on 17 June 2026.
• The Drone Dominance Program ordered 14,000 strike drones from Neros in its second round, the largest order by number of aircraft in the table.

The large aircraft

Seven companies in the table build large military aircraft. General Atomics and Anduril won the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft production contracts in June 2026, for the FQ-42A and the FQ-44A. Boeing’s MQ-25A Stingray, a carrier-based tanker, went into low-rate production in September with a $562 million Navy order, Defense News reported.

Northrop Grumman builds the MQ-4C Triton and the Global Hawk. Its self-funded YFQ-48A Talon Blue made a first fully autonomous flight on 3 October 2026, the company says. Kratos makes aerial targets for the Navy and the XQ-58A Valkyrie jet.

The small drones the Army buys

Most makers in the table build small tactical drones. The Army ordered more than 2,500 Skydio X10D quadcopters in March 2026, a deal worth over $52 million that Skydio calls the largest single-vendor order of its kind. Red Cat’s Teal Drones won the Short Range Reconnaissance programme of record in November 2024 with the Black Widow. In October 2026 Red Cat put Teal and FlightWave under one brand, Red Cat Aerial.

AeroVironment, maker of the Switchblade loitering munition, took a $117.3 million Army order for 82 P550 aircraft in July 2026. It was the first full-rate purchase for the Army’s Long Range Reconnaissance programme.

Strike drones by the thousand

The Drone Dominance Program buys cheap attack drones in rounds it calls Gauntlets. Neros, which builds first-person-view strike drones in Torrance, California, received an order for 14,000 drones and explosive payloads in the second round, valued at over $100 million.

Swarm Defense Technologies, spun out of a drone-show company in Michigan, was ordered 4,000 Kiwi one-way attack drones on 22 September 2026. ModalAI, Auterion, HALO Aeronautics and Ascent AeroSystems each filled first-round orders of between 1,600 and 2,240 drones, according to the programme’s own data. Of the 30,000 drones ordered in the first round, 16,680 had passed government inspection by 15 October.

The third round will spend $450 million on about 60,000 one-way attack drones at prices the programme set in advance. Bids closed on 12 October, and the aircraft will be chosen at Gauntlet III in March 2027.

Outside defence

Eight makers in the table build delivery and cargo drones. Zipline designs, builds and flies its own aircraft; in November 2025 the State Department agreed to pay it up to $150 million to expand its network in five African countries, money released only as governments sign contracts, the company says. Wing, owned by Alphabet, says it has made well over a million deliveries. Amazon designs its own MK30.

Matternet’s M2 was the first delivery drone with both an FAA type certificate and a production certificate, and its shares began trading over the counter as MTTN on 21 September 2026. The military buys cargo drones too: the Army gave Elroy Air about $46.1 million in August 2026 for its Chaparral, and the Air Force gave Skyways $37 million in 2025 to put its V3 into production.

The rest sell to companies and police. BRINC builds drones that police send ahead of officers to emergency calls. Corvus Robotics flies inventory drones through warehouses, Lucid Bots sells a drone that washes buildings, and Hylio and Pyka build spray aircraft for farms. The FAA authorised Pyka’s Pelican 2 for commercial work in February 2025.

How the table is built

A company is in the table when it is headquartered in the United States, designs and sells its own complete uncrewed aircraft, and has one of three things: an aircraft on the Blue UAS list, a published US government contract or order for its aircraft, or aircraft on public sale. Loitering munitions, aerial targets and interceptor drones count.

Makers of parts or software only are not rows, nor are counter-drone companies without an aircraft of their own, operators that fly other makers’ drones, piloted air taxis, and sea and ground drones. US sales arms of foreign makers are left out too. The dossier behind the table names the companies examined and excluded, and why.

The government order in each row is one notable award, usually the latest significant one. It is not a complete history.

Which US Drone Makers Are on the Blue UAS List?

Of the 67 companies in the table, 35 have at least one aircraft on the DCMA Blue UAS list, among them Skydio, Red Cat, AeroVironment, Anduril, Shield AI, Teledyne FLIR, Freefly Systems and Inspired Flight. The list covers small drones only, so the makers of large military aircraft do not appear on it. Our Blue UAS guide lists every cleared aircraft.

Are There American Alternatives to DJI?

For commercial and public-safety work, yes. Skydio, Freefly Systems, Inspired Flight, Skyfish and WISPR Systems all build aircraft on the Blue UAS list for mapping, inspection and police work, and Hylio and Pyka build spray aircraft for farms. None matches DJI’s prices or range of consumer models. Our NDAA-compliant drones guide covers what US agencies may buy.

Where Are American Drones Made?

California leads, with 27 of the 67 makers in the table, from San Diego to the Bay Area. Virginia has seven, and Texas and Florida five each. Some build away from their headquarters: Skydio, based in San Mateo, assembles its aircraft in Hayward, California, and HALO Aeronautics, a Virginia joint venture, manufactures in Port Orange, Florida.

Which US Drone Makers Are Publicly Traded?

Eleven companies in the table trade under their own ticker, including AeroVironment (AVAV), Kratos (KTOS), Red Cat (RCAT), AEVEX (AVEX) and EagleNXT (UAVS), along with the primes Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, L3Harris and RTX. Our drone stocks guide covers them as investments.

Sources

• DCMA Blue List portal, Cleared List, read 15 October 2026.
• Department of War Drone Dominance Program, order and leaderboard data read 15 October 2026.
• USAspending.gov, federal award records for the smaller makers.
• Department of War contract announcements.
• US Air Force, Air Force advances future of air superiority with CCA contracts, 17 June 2026.
• Kongsberg, KONGSBERG completes acquisition of Zone 5, 10 June 2026.
• Red Cat press releases, Red Cat Aerial, 12 October 2026.
• Company announcements and filings, linked from each row of the table above.