Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Elroy Air Wins $46 Million Army Contract for Chaparral
Contract covers jam-resistant navigation and hardened communications links
The Chaparral releases a payload in flight
Elroy Air has developed three unattended delivery modes for its Chaparral drone under a U.S. Army contract. © Elroy Air/YouTube

Elroy Air has won a $46 million U.S. Army contract to develop its hybrid-electric Chaparral cargo drone for battlefield resupply missions, the California-based company announced on August 18.

A Pentagon contract listing published a day earlier valued the firm-fixed-price Phase III Small Business Innovation Research award at $46,058,871 and set an estimated completion date of Feb. 18, 2029. At the time of the award, though, the Army had put up only $5.1 million against that figure, with the rest to be funded as the program proceeds.

In this article