AeroVironment, Inc. (AV), a global defense technology leader, has announced it was awarded a $14.6 million production contract by the U.S. Army for the VAPOR Compact Long Endurance (CLE) unmanned aircraft system (UAS), its all-electric vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) platform, under the Company-Level Directed Requirement (CoLvl DR) Small Uncrewed Aircraft System (SUAS), Tranche 2. The award supports the Army’s Medium Range Reconnaissance (MRR) initiative, one of the Army’s ongoing unmanned systems procurements.
Jason Hendrix, Vice President and General Manager of SUAS at AeroVironment, stated:
“Being selected for the Company-Level Directed Requirement validates VAPOR CLE’s performance, adaptability, and mission value. This award reflects AV’s commitment to delivering operationally relevant, rapidly deployable solutions that meet the Army’s urgent needs and evolving mission requirements.”
The Army’s CoLvl DR effort delivers commercially available SUAS capabilities to Brigade Combat Teams (BCTs) to meet immediate operational needs, emphasizing UAS as a complete system. This approach enables modular, reconfigurable, and attritable payloads for reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition, while enhancing adaptability, operational effectiveness, and soldier-driven experimentation to shape future requirements.
Engineered for demanding missions, the VAPOR CLE all-electric helicopter UAS sets a new standard for endurance, payload capacity, and field adaptability. Designed for operations across austere environments — from Arctic terrain to contested maritime conditions — the platform combines rugged reliability with a compact, deploy-anywhere design. Its modular open architecture and multi-sensor payload bay make it one of the most versatile small VTOL systems available.
The VAPOR CLE features a folding airframe and compact pack-out system enabling case-to-flight in as little as two minutes, delivering exceptional portability and speed to launch. Ruggedized for extreme weather and harsh sea states, it can carry up to 24 pounds of payload or lethal munitions and deliver up to two hours of endurance, outperforming other all-electric quadcopters and competing helicopter UAS platforms in its class.
