18-03-2025
Exclusive: Mach Industries and Heven Drones partner on defense production
Mach Industries and Heven Drones are teaming up, with previously undisclosed plans to produce the latter's unmanned aerial vehicles at the former's flagship factory, Forge Huntington.
The big picture: California-based Mach Industries and Heven Drones, which is located in Florida and with roots in Israel, want to together "provide an offset" to Chinese dominance in the drone market, they told Axios.
Pentagon officials used similar language to describe Replicator 1.0, launched in 2023 to amass thousands of unmanned battlefield assets.
Zoom in: Heven's H100, H2D55 and Raider drones will be pumped out at the plant, 115,000 square-feet down the road from other defense-tech players like Anduril Industries.
There are commitments to codevelop components, including avionics, radios and propulsion systems.
Heven specializes in hydrogen-powered aircraft. It unveiled Raider in February at the International Defence Exhibition and Conference in Abu Dhabi.
What they're saying: "Our customers urgently need thousands, and eventually tens of thousands, of drones to be deployed in-theater," Heven Drones CEO Bentzion Levinson said.
The goal here, he added, is "quick-turn, full-scale American manufacturing."
Flashback: Mach weeks ago said it was selected by the U.S. Army Applications Laboratory to work on a vertical-takeoff cruise missile dubbed Strategic Strike.
HIMARS range, cruise missile speed and Hellfire effects."
