AEVEX

AEVEX designs, manufactures and supports autonomous aircraft, long-range precision-strike systems, mission software and special-mission aircraft. Its model combines airframes, navigation, sensors, communications, payloads, production and field support inside one company. That shortens the distance between a combat requirement and a delivered system.

Tactical Systems builds unmanned aircraft systems, maritime vehicles, precision-strike platforms and the CompassX autonomy family. This segment supplied 86.3% of second-quarter 2026 revenue, making autonomous production the economic center of the company.

Global Solutions modifies and operates aircraft, integrates intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance payloads and turns collected data into mission support. It also serves public-safety customers through wildfire detection and airborne command-and-control work.

CompassX · Navigation and Mission Autonomy

CompassX is a modular family of artificial intelligence-enabled navigation and autonomy systems for crewed and uncrewed platforms. CompassCore provides the open mission-computing layer. CompassVision supports computer vision. CompassEngage supports targeting and engagement workflows. CompassPNT provides positioning, navigation and timing functions while CompassEarth adds terrain-referenced navigation. The design objective is continued operation when satellite navigation, communications or clean sensor data cannot be assumed.

Long-Range Precision Strike

AEVEX markets a family that includes Atlas, Disruptor, Raker, Vandal and other modular strike systems. Atlas was selected by the U.S. Army in October 2025 for initial Launched Effects-Short Range fielding, but the company did not disclose an award value or quantity. AEVEX also produces additive-manufactured Group 3 aircraft for one-way attack missions and an unnamed long-range strike platform supported by the June 2026 Air Force award.

Persistent Air and Maritime Systems

Mariana is a long-endurance unmanned aircraft built for persistent missions. Mako and Mako Lite extend the portfolio into unmanned surface vessels. These systems share the company’s emphasis on modular payloads, expeditionary use and autonomy in degraded environments.

Mission Solutions

Global Solutions covers aircraft modification, integration, test, flight operations, intelligence analysis, electronic warfare support, counter-unmanned-aircraft testing and rapid fabrication. The California Fire Integrated Real-Time Intelligence System program and Oregon wildfire aircraft delivery show how the same airborne-sensing skill set can generate non-defense revenue.

Rapid Manufacturing and Allied Integration

The 2025 acquisition of selected RapidFlight assets and intellectual property added additive-manufacturing methods, aircraft designs and production tooling. A separate non-exclusive memorandum with Six Robotics creates a path to integrate that company’s Valkyrie autonomy software with AEVEX platforms for allied customers. A memorandum is a collaboration framework, not a production contract or backlog.

Pending BlackSea Expansion

The proposed BlackSea Technologies acquisition would add unmanned surface vessels, subsea systems and maritime manufacturing. The transaction is pending and is not owned revenue, backlog or capacity until closing.

Q2 2026 revenue reached $201.8 million, up 99.5% from $101.1 million. Tactical Systems grew 141.6% to $174.2 million while Global Solutions declined 5.0% to $27.6 million. Gross profit was $47.6 million and gross margin was 23.6%. Net income was $6.7 million, with $2.3 million attributable to AEVEX Corp.

First-half revenue was $418.5 million. Management raised 2026 guidance to $700 million-$720 million of revenue and $105 million-$111.5 million of adjusted EBITDA. The outlook should not be read as including BlackSea unless management explicitly updates it after closing.

Primary Growth Drivers

Production orders: repeat U.S. Government precision-strike demand. CompassX: more software and integration content per platform. Manufacturing: additive methods and distributed facilities. BlackSea: if closed, the deal would add maritime systems and an estimated $150 million of 2026 revenue from the acquired business, based on AEVEX's forecast rather than realized AEVEX results.

AEVEX has moved from proof of product to proof of durable scale. Two quarters of exceptional growth establish demand and production capability. They do not establish a stable backlog replacement rate, normalized margin or acquisition playbook.

Constructive Case

Recent awards refill funded backlog, CompassX content expands and BlackSea closes on acceptable terms. AEVEX becomes a multi-domain autonomy supplier spanning air, surface and subsea systems.

Base Case

Revenue remains lumpy because a few Tactical Systems programs dominate deliveries. Guidance is achievable, but margin, working capital and backlog move sharply with acceptance timing. BlackSea adds breadth while requiring cash, equity issuance and integration work.

Adverse Case

Backlog falls faster than awards convert to funding, production scale exposes quality constraints or BlackSea strains liquidity and management capacity. Continued material weaknesses would compound those risks.

The competitive set changes by procurement lane. No single rival matches AEVEX across precision strike, autonomy software, special-mission aviation and wildfire intelligence.

AEVEX’s strongest advantage is the feedback loop between field operations and manufacturing. Teams that understand collection, flight operations and mission support can feed real-world requirements into platform design, autonomy software, payload integration and sustainment. That is more defensible than a catalog of airframes alone.

The industrial base matters. AEVEX reports about 100,000 square feet of uncrewed-system manufacturing space, more than 150 engineering personnel and capacity above 1,000 systems per month. More than 87% of the workforce holds security clearances. The company also reports serving as prime contractor on work representing 88.1% of revenue, which gives it more direct customer access than a subcontract-only model.

The moat is still conditional. Capacity is not the same as sustained throughput. A modular software stack is not a durable standard until customers adopt it across programs. Larger rivals have broader balance sheets and private rivals can spend ahead of contracts. AEVEX therefore has to prove three things at once: repeat orders, consistent quality and software reuse across more than one platform family.

Program concentration: second-quarter growth depended heavily on a small number of Tactical Systems programs, including the European Command Deep Strike effort. A delay, redesign or lower delivery rate can move quarterly results sharply.

Backlog replacement: funded backlog declined from $503.1 million at 31-DEC-2025 to $259.8 million at 30-JUN-2026 as deliveries accelerated. Conversion is positive only if new funded awards refill the pipeline at an adequate rate.

Material weaknesses in internal controls: management concluded disclosure controls were ineffective. Disclosed weaknesses include insufficient accounting and control personnel, segregation-of-duty problems, gaps in formal accounting controls and reconciliations and information-technology general-control deficiencies. AEVEX is remediating them, but the risk remains until tested and cleared.

Government and customer dependence: 92.7% of funded backlog was tied to the U.S. Government. Continuing resolutions, protests, security requirements, contract termination rights, export controls and customer acceptance can delay revenue.

Scale execution: additive manufacturing and rapid output can shorten production cycles, but they also increase supplier, quality, configuration-control, labor and working-capital risk.

Up-C governance: Class B holders retain voting power without direct economic rights in the public company. Exchanges can expand Class A float, and the Tax Receivable Agreement requires AEVEX to pay legacy owners 85% of certain realized tax savings. The company estimated potential payments of about $373.2 million over 15 years if all remaining units were exchanged immediately after the initial public offering, although actual timing and value will vary.

Secondary supply: the June offering showed that public float can increase through legacy-holder sales and unit exchanges even when the operating business is unchanged.

Disclosure limits: classified and customer-sensitive work can prevent investors and competitors from seeing system identity, quantities, schedules, funded values or margins until they appear in aggregate results.

Acquisition integration: Matrix, Spark, Tribe, Veth Research Associates and RapidFlight assets contribute different technologies and teams. Failure to integrate software, production methods and talent would weaken the promised end-to-end model.

BlackSea transaction: regulatory approval, cash funding, stock dilution, retention, forecast accuracy and integration all remain risks until and after closing. The acquired company's revenue and production claims are management estimates.

Major Holdings

Recent Insider Transactions

AEVEX’s operating roots reach to a veteran-founded mission-support business that won its first contract in 2007. The AEVEX platform was assembled in 2017 through the combination of Merlin Global Services, CSG Solutions and Special Operations Solutions. It entered the market as an airborne intelligence and special-mission contractor, then used internal development and acquisitions to move into autonomous aircraft and precision strike.

The Phoenix Ghost and U.S. European Command Deep Strike efforts accelerated that transition. AEVEX states that the two programs together represent more than 9,300 systems delivered and committed through the end of 2026 and more than $1.2 billion of total contract value. That total contract value is not the same as remaining funded backlog or recognized revenue.