PDW is scaling attritable drone manufacturing into a distributed frontline strike system

PDW closed over $110 million in Series B financing on March 25, 2026, with Ondas leading and Hood River, Cedar Pine, Hanwha Asset Management's venture fund and Booz Allen Hamilton participating. The financing followed the March 24 production launch of the Attritable Multirotor strike platform, giving PDW capital tied to software development, production capacity and delivery.

The Huntsville Manufacturing Footprint

Drone Factory 01 is the industrial base behind PDW's C100 and AM-FPV buildout: a 90,000 sq ft Huntsville, Alabama facility opened in August 2025 for engineering, design, manufacturing, flight testing and final assembly under one roof. PDW lists planned monthly capacity at 350 C100 multi-mission platforms and 5,000 AM-FPV systems.

The facility is built around U.S.-based production and foreign-component reduction for defense customers. The Series B capital gives that factory expansion a financing layer tied to AM-FPV production, C100 delivery and software development.

Special Operations And Racing Heritage

PDW Holdings, Inc. combines professional drone racing engineering, defense software work and U.S. Special Operations feedback inside a small-UAS company headquartered in Huntsville. Ryan Gury is CEO and cofounder, Trevor Smith is CSO and cofounder, James Slider is president and chief operations officer, Tom Inman is chief finance officer, and Dylan Hamm is chief technology officer.

That background maps to a portfolio built around fast field repair, modular payloads, mission software and tactical radio links: C100 Defense, AM-FPV, SIM flight simulator, CORE mission planning software, Multi-Mission Payloads, Range Extension Kit and anti-jam radio.

The Daisy-Chained Relay Stack

AM-FPV is the short-range strike node in PDW's stack, using swappable 5 in, 7 in and 10 in arm configurations, universal payload interfaces, 25 min max flight time, 5 lb payload capacity and a 120 sec deployment window. The production configuration has a 10 km point-to-point operational range, tool-less field reconfiguration and upgraded packaging for transport and setup.

C100 Defense supplies the persistent C2 relay and ISR layer around the smaller airframe, extending AM-FPV operation to over 20 km while carrying its own 74 min ISR flight time, 8 lb max payload, 40 mph max speed, IP54 durability, NDAA compliance and Blue UAS certification. C100 payload options include Trillium HD40-LVV, PDW Vision Payload, FireBeast, StreamCaster, Stag5 LLD, AM, X80, Raptor LP, DragonEye2 and MRD.

Software And Field Validation

CORE 1.4 links the physical platforms through Vision-Based Navigation cold start, Doodle Labs Sense integration, swappable battery modules on SROC, C100 Precision Control Mode, Advanced Mission Orbit at Waypoint, Taiwan and Ukraine training maps, and expanded ground assets including tanks, boats, SUVs and radar systems.

The 9 Mile campaign ran 114 flights over three days in Texas. C100 with Range Extension Kit and Extended Range Antenna reached command-and-control distances up to 20 km, AM-FPV reached 10+ km BVLOS operation through a Doodle Labs mesh network with relay support, and C100 with PDW Vision Payload completed 11 autonomous flights without GPS navigation.

UK Ministry of Defence target-designation trials paired C100 with a Leonardo DRS STAG 5 laser target designator for ground-launched APKWS rockets. A C100 with NextVision DragonEye2 EO/IR payload maintained command, control and live video transmission beyond 8.5 km.

Maturity

Public procurement registries do not disclose delivered units.

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