AeroVironment is a defense technology company that designs and manufactures unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), loitering munitions, and electronic warfare solutions for the U.S. military and allied nations. AeroVironment's core products include UAS platforms like Puma and Raven, and Switchblade loitering munitions, which are precision-guided drones deployed by individual soldiers. Through the acquisition of BlueHalo, AeroVironment expanded into space-qualified hardware, laser communication terminals, directed energy weapon systems for counter-UAS missions, and cyber solutions. AeroVironment operates through two segments: Autonomous Systems, which focuses on UAS and strike systems, and Space, Cyber and Directed Energy, which houses R&D and space infrastructure. AeroVironment sells primarily to the U.S. DoD and international partners through multi-year contracts and IDIQ vehicles. AeroVironment is shifting its business model from lower-margin cost-plus development contracts toward a commercial product model. In this commercial model, AeroVironment uses its own R&D to develop fixed-price products that offer higher margins and faster scalability. Management aims to mature early-stage technologies into full-rate production while scaling manufacturing capacity to meet demand. AeroVironment differentiates itself by its ability to manufacture battle-proven systems at scale and provide an open-architecture software platform to unify command and control across domains.