Oshkosh steps into larger UAS space with new Grid Aero partnership

Oshkosh Defense is teaming up with autonomous aircraft company Grid Aero in a new partnership. (Oshkosh Defense, Grid Aero)

WASHINGTON — Oshkosh Defense is teaming up with autonomous aircraft firm Grid Aero, in a partnership aimed at scaling up production on the latter’s Lifter drone, the companies announced Monday.

The partnership comes as the Pentagon is pushing for affordable Group 4 and 5 unmanned autonomous systems (UAS) — like Grid Aero’s Lifter, the design of which was unveiled last August — that are produced at scale and that it can purchase in bulk.

“This partnership represents a new model for defense innovation, bringing Silicon Valley’s transformative technology development together with the Midwest’s unmatched manufacturing capability,” Logan Jones, chief growth officer of Oshkosh Defense , said in a statement today. “Grid Aero brings cutting-edge autonomous aircraft innovation, and Oshkosh brings the industrial capability to make it real at scale. Together, we’re addressing critical defense needs with American innovation and American manufacturing.”

Specifically, the two companies plan to team up on “design for manufacturability, production planning, supply chain optimization, and ultimately building Lifter aircraft at scale,” according to an Oshkosh news release.

Arthur Dubois, CEO of Grid Aero, said the Lifter aircraft is designed to haul a “few” thousand pounds, for a “few” thousand miles, and take on a variety of mission sets, ranging from intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), to hauling cargo.

“Our objective is to be as modular as we can with the payload integration systems, whether it’s for cargo, ISR, even other purposes,” Dubois told Breaking Defense. “I’m not going to tell you that we’re designing it for any one specific purpose. We’re designing it to be just like modular pickup truck that you know can have anything mounted on top of it.”

Ultimately, the goal is to produce hundreds, if not thousands, of these aircraft by the early 2030s, according to Dubois.

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Dubois estimated there are another six to 12 months of testing for the variety of Lifter prototypes that are being built or are in the works at the moment. In roughly a year, he said he expects that the two companies will launch a pilot line at Oshkosh.

Grid Aero will hash out some design alterations with Oshkosh as they work in tandem to “redesign the platform into its next iteration,” Dubois said. Even so, Dubois said he expects the aircraft to largely maintain its original shape — although there may be some changes related to the parts used to build the aircraft.

“The start of this collaboration is us revisiting the design of the airframe, and working with Oshkosh’s team on supply chain, working on what parts we can actually buy in those volumes, working on what methods actually would work at the the kind of rates we want to build at, working on what Oshkosh’s workforce knows how to do to better integrate that into the design,” Dubois said.

Oshkosh Defense is known for building military vehicles, including Joint Light Tactical Vehicles. Grid Aero emerged from stealth in August 2025, and is based in California.

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奥什科什防务公司与无人飞行器公司Grid Aero建立新的合作伙伴关系。（奥什科什防务公司，Grid Aero）

华盛顿——奥什科什防务公司与自主飞行器公司 Grid Aero 合作，旨在扩大后者 Lifter 无人机的生产规模，两家公司周一宣布了这一消息。

五角大楼正在大力推进价格合理的第 4 类和第 5 类无人自主系统 (UAS)，例如 Grid Aero 的 Lifter（其设计于去年 8 月公布），这些系统可以大规模生产并批量采购。

“此次合作代表了一种全新的国防创新模式，它将硅谷的变革性技术研发与中西部地区无与伦比的制造能力相结合，”奥什科什防务公司首席增长官洛根·琼斯今天在一份声明中表示。“Grid Aero带来了尖端的自主飞行器创新技术，而奥什科什则提供了将其大规模落地的工业能力。我们将携手合作，利用美国的创新和制造能力来满足关键的国防需求。”

根据奥什科什发布的新闻稿，具体而言，两家公司计划在“可制造性设计、生产计划、供应链优化以及最终大规模制造 Lifter 飞机”方面展开合作。

Grid Aero 首席执行官 Arthur Dubois 表示，Lifter 飞机设计用于运载“几千磅”的货物飞行“几千英里”，并执行各种任务，包括情报、监视和侦察 (ISR) 以及货物运输。

杜波伊斯告诉《防务新闻》：“我们的目标是尽可能地实现有效载荷集成系统的模块化，无论是用于货物运输、情报、监视与侦察，还是其他用途。我不会说我们是为了某个特定用途而设计的。我们的设计理念是让它像一辆模块化皮卡一样，可以搭载任何东西。”

杜波依斯表示，最终目标是在 2030 年代初生产数百架，甚至数千架这样的飞机。

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这两款飞机都设计成能够随着威胁和任务需求的变化而不断改进。

杜波依斯估计，目前正在建造或研发的各种Lifter原型机还需要6到12个月的测试时间。他表示，预计大约一年后，这两家公司将在奥什科什航展上启动一条试点生产线。

杜波伊斯表示，Grid Aero将与奥什科什公司共同商讨一些设计变更，双方将携手“把这个平台重新设计成下一代产品”。即便如此，杜波伊斯也表示，他预计飞机将基本保持原有外形——尽管飞机制造部件可能会有一些改动。

“此次合作的开始是我们将重新审视机身设计，并与奥什科什团队合作，研究供应链，探讨我们可以以这些数量实际采购哪些零件，探讨哪些方法能够以我们想要的生产速度真正奏效，以及奥什科什的员工知道如何更好地将这些技术融入设计中，”杜波依斯说道。

奥什科什防务公司以制造军用车辆而闻名，其中包括联合轻型战术车辆。Grid Aero公司于2025年8月结束隐形运营，总部位于加利福尼亚州。

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