Elroy Air Wins $46 Million Army Contract for Chaparral

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.

Elroy Air said the work will broaden the range of payloads the Chaparral can carry and refine its payload delivery mechanisms. The goal is to develop an aircraft capable of resupplying troops in contested airspace and in areas where infrastructure is scarce. According to Elroy Air, the contract also covers a portable mission-planning system, communications links hardened against cyberattacks, navigation that functions even when GPS signals are jammed or unavailable, and autonomy that lets the aircraft complete missions with minimal input from a remote operator.

The contract builds on work that the company has been conducting under U.S. defense contracts for the past two years. “This contract reinforces the critical role that heavy-lift autonomous hybrid VTOL drones will play in modern defense operations,” said Elroy Air CEO Andrew Clare. “We are thrilled to expand our partnership with the U.S. Army to bring rapid, autonomous heavy cargo delivery capabilities that increase operational throughput and reduce risk for our troops.”

Last month, the company announced it had developed three unattended delivery modes for the Chaparral: releasing a load from a hover, dropping one while flying forward, and setting one down after landing. At a July 15 demonstration at its Byron, California, facility, the aircraft dropped a 68-pound and a 70-pound load in a single sortie, one from a hover and one from 65 feet in forward flight, the company said.

Elroy Air said the Chaparral can carry more than 500 pounds in detachable pods and has a maximum range of 450 miles, flying on a hybrid-electric powertrain that needs no runway or charging equipment.

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions will build production aircraft at its Sacramento, California, factory under a five-year exclusive manufacturing agreement, with the first airframes due late this year. Elroy Air plans to begin operating the Chaparral under the FAA’s eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP) this year, having been selected for the “Liftoff Louisiana” project alongside its partner and customer Bristow Group. For the eIPP, the aircraft will carry cargo along the Gulf Coast to energy industry sites in Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi, the company said.

On August 10, Elroy Air and Columbus Circle Capital Corp II submitted a draft registration statement on Form S-4 to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, moving the pair closer to a merger that would take Elroy Air public. That deal values Elroy Air at $800 million before the merger capital arrives and about $1 billion once it closes, which is expected to happen in the fourth quarter.