ALPENA, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 16, 2025--
PteroDynamics, an innovator in autonomous vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft systems, and AeroVironment, Inc. (“AV”) (NASDAQ: AVAV), a leading provider of Electronic Warfare (EW) capabilities, recently collaborated for a joint technology demonstration at Silent Swarm 25, hosted by the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Crane Division at the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center in Alpena, Michigan. The companies integrated multiple industry-leading EW sensors from AV on the PteroDynamics P4 Transwing ® autonomous VTOL unmanned aircraft system (UAS), highlighting a spectrum of maneuver capabilities available to warfighters with the combined capabilities.
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Equipped with AV’s EW capabilities, the autonomous Transwing VTOL aircraft successfully completed three scenarios in operationally relevant, multi-domain environments–observing, detecting, and effecting various representative threats throughout the theater to inform future U.S. Navy operations for littoral surveillance.
“PteroDynamics’ Transwing VTOL UAS with AV’s EW payloads demonstrated important new capabilities in a realistic and challenging operational environment,” said Tim Whitehand, PteroDynamics vice president of engineering. “We are excited to have worked closely with AV to equip the Transwing with these innovative EW capabilities. The Transwing’s compact footprint, rapid and disturbance-resilient transition, and highly efficient wing-borne flight enable operations from confined or remote locations without runways, making it an ideal platform for maritime littoral operations.”
“Our open, interoperable EW systems are strategically engineered to reduce payload integration timelines for airborne, maritime, and ground ISR platforms, helping us meet unique mission needs with speed and scale,” said Conrad Smith, General Manager of Electronic Warfare Systems at AV. “By participating in events, like Silent Swarm 25, and innovating alongside other industry leaders, like PteroDynamics, we are expanding mission-critical capabilities for the U.S. Navy.”
AV delivers open-architecture EW chassis and sensors to support mission planning and awareness. These tactical solutions are designed and developed for a full spectrum of readiness capabilities, keeping warfighters ahead of global threats with actionable intelligence at the mission’s edge.
PteroDynamics’ Group 3 Transwing platform offers the speed, range, and endurance of fixed-wing systems with superior VTOL performance in a simple, highly efficient autonomous platform. The aircraft unfolds its wings to transition smoothly and quickly between vertical and horizontal flight. It delivers superior VTOL stability and gust tolerance, requires no launch and recovery infrastructure, and occupies one-third or less ground footprint than other VTOL aircraft with a comparable wingspan – an ideal platform for multi-mission payloads.
During Silent Swarm 25, the Transwing flew from confined launch and recovery zones along the tree line on the shore of Lake Huron, showcasing its inherent expeditionary capabilities and operating envelope, which is unconstrained by wind direction. The team also took advantage of the Transwing’s modular architecture to integrate, and flight test the AV EW payload in a single day.
Transwing Receives FAA Airworthiness Certificate
PteroDynamics received a Special Airworthiness Certificate–Experimental Category (SAC-EC) from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for the P4 Transwing UAS to conduct research and development flights in national airspace near Alpena, Michigan during Silent Swarm 25. Prior U.S. Navy demonstrations were at sea, including those at RIMPAC 2024 and the 2023 Hybrid Fleet Campaign Event.
The SAC-EC allowed PteroDynamics, for the first time, to fly the 89 lb aircraft with an airworthiness certificate in U.S. airspace. The certification review and approval process took over seven months and demonstrated to regulators the maturity and safety of the Transwing and the trust the FAA has in PteroDynamics’ aircraft and processes.
About PteroDynamics
PteroDynamics Inc. is an innovation leader in autonomous vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft systems. PteroDynamics’ patented Transwing® aircraft folds its wings to transition seamlessly between configurations optimized for vertical and winged horizontal flight, combining the speed, range, and endurance of fixed-wing aircraft with superb VTOL performance in a highly efficient unmanned aerial system (UAS) platform that overcomes inherent limitations in other VTOL designs. Transwing’s unique capabilities are ideal for automating time-sensitive delivery of critical high-value payloads to hard-to-reach locations with no runways and in austere conditions, including dual-use military and commercial applications like maritime logistics support, payload delivery to remote locations without airstrips, and reconnaissance and surveillance. For more information, please visit www.pterodynamics.com.
About AV
AV (NASDAQ: AVAV) is a defense technology leader delivering integrated capabilities across air, land, sea, space, and cyber. The Company develops and deploys autonomous systems, loitering munitions, counter-UAS technologies, space-based platforms, directed energy systems, and cyber and electronic warfare capabilities—built to meet the mission needs of today’s warfighter and tomorrow’s conflicts. At the core of these technologies lies AV_Halo, a modular, mission-ready suite of AI-powered software tools that empowers warfighters and enables full-battlefield dominance: detect, decide, deliver. With a national manufacturing footprint and a deep innovation pipeline, AV delivers proven systems and future-defining capabilities at speed, scale, and operational relevance. For more information, visit www.avinc.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
Certain statements in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially. Factors that may cause such differences include, but are not limited to, our ability to perform under existing contracts and obtain new ones; regulatory changes; competitor activities; market growth; product development challenges; and general economic conditions. For a more detailed discussion of these risks, please refer to AeroVironment’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We undertake no obligation to update forward-looking statements as a result of new information or future events.
![AV's industry-leading EW sensors were integrated on the PteroDynamics P4 Transwing® autonomous VTOL unmanned aircraft system (UAS) during the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Crane Division’s Silent Swarm 2025 – highlighting the full spectrum of maneuver capabilities now available to warfighters. [Credit: PteroDynamics]](https://image.bastillepost.com/1200x/wp-content/uploads/global/2025/12/cd1d97d98dd64cbca3312354e6f3d96a_AVPterodynamicsSilentSwarm.jpg.webp)
AV's industry-leading EW sensors were integrated on the PteroDynamics P4 Transwing® autonomous VTOL unmanned aircraft system (UAS) during the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Crane Division’s Silent Swarm 2025 – highlighting the full spectrum of maneuver capabilities now available to warfighters. [Credit: PteroDynamics]
President Donald Trump’s top Cabinet officials overseeing national security are expected back on Capitol Hill on Tuesday as questions mount over the swift escalation of U.S. military force and deadly boat strikes in international waters near Venezuela.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others are set to brief members of the House and the Senate amid congressional investigations into a military strike in September that killed two survivors of an initial attack on a boat allegedly carrying cocaine. Legal experts say it could have been a war crime, or murder. On the eve of the hearings, the U.S. military announced three more boat attacks targeting “designated terrorist organizations,” killing eight more people.
Here's the latest:
The United States gained a decent 64,000 jobs in November but lost 105,000 in October as federal workers departed after cutbacks by the Trump administration, the government said Tuesday in delayed reports. And the unemployment rate rose to 4.6%, highest since 2021.
Hiring has clearly lost momentum, hobbled by uncertainty over Trump’s tariffs and the lingering effects of high interest rates the Federal Reserve engineered in 2022 and 2023 to rein in inflation.
American companies are mostly holding onto the employees they have. But they’re reluctant to hire new ones as they struggle to assess how to use artificial intelligence and how to adjust to Trump’s unpredictable policies, especially his double-digit taxes on imports from around the world.
▶ Read more about how the uncertainty leaves jobseekers struggling to even land interviews
The Ukrainian president says proposals being negotiated with U.S. officials for a deal to end the fighting in Russia’s nearly 4-year-old invasion of his country could be finalized within days, after which American envoys will present them to the Kremlin before possible further meetings in the U.S. next weekend.
A draft peace plan discussed with the U.S. during talks in Berlin on Monday is “not perfect” but is “very workable,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters, while cautioning that some key issues — notably what happens to Ukrainian territory occupied by Russian forces — remain unresolved.
But as the spotlight shifts to Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin may balk at some of the proposals thrashed out by officials from Washington, Kyiv and Western Europe, including postwar security guarantees for Ukraine.
The security proposal discussed in Berlin will be based on Western help in keeping the Ukrainian army strong, an official from a NATO nation said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
“Europeans will lead a multinational and multi-domain force to strengthen those troops and to secure Ukraine from the land, sea and air, and the U.S. will lead a ceasefire monitoring and verification mechanism, with international participation,” the official said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov repeated Tuesday that Russia wants a comprehensive peace deal, and that if Ukraine seeks “momentary, unsustainable solutions, we are unlikely to be ready to participate.”
“We want peace — we don’t want a truce that would give Ukraine a respite and prepare for the continuation of the war,” he told reporters. “We want to stop this war, achieve our goals, secure our interests, and guarantee peace in Europe for the future.”
“It seems like another example of the pay-to-play administration,” said Kedric Payne, who leads the ethics program at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center in Washington. “There is clearly a perception that in order to get favorable policies and acts from the administration, a company needs to provide a financial benefit to the president.”
Trump Media did not respond to specific questions about the arrangement. “Neither the President nor his family have ever engaged, or will ever engage, in conflicts of interest,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
Crypto.com was under siege for more a year, told enforcement action was likely as part of an aggressive Biden administration push to regulate the cryptocurrency industry. Then Donald Trump won the 2024 election, and the company’s legal peril dissipated.
By August, Crypto.com announced it was plunging roughly $1 billion worth of assets into a venture with a new partner — Trump’s social media company, which had lost hundreds of millions of dollars since its 2021 launch.
Legal and ethics experts say Crypto.com’s journey from investigative target to Trump business partner provides a case study of conflicts of interest as Trump family businesses enter lucrative arrangements with federally regulated companies, some of which have benefited from action taken by his administration.
▶ Read more from the AP investigation into Trump’s relationship with Crypto.com
Hegseth, Rubio and others are set to brief members of the House and the Senate behind closed doors as the U.S. is building up its presence with warships, flying fighter jets near Venezuelan airspace and seizing an oil tanker as part of its campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who has insisted the real purpose of the U.S. military operations is to force him from office.
Trump’s Republican administration has not sought any authorization from Congress for action against Venezuela. But lawmakers objecting to the military incursions are pushing war powers resolutions toward potential voting this week.
▶ Read more about the briefing
The Trump administration said in a court filing Monday that the president’s White House ballroom construction project must continue for unexplained national security reasons and because a preservationists’ organization that wants it stopped has no standing to sue.
The filing was in response to a lawsuit filed last Friday by the National Trust for Historic Preservation asking a federal judge to halt President Donald Trump’s project until it goes through multiple independent reviews and a public comment period and wins approval from Congress.
The administration’s 36-page filing included a declaration from Matthew C. Quinn, deputy director of the U.S. Secret Service, the agency responsible for the security of the president and other high-ranking officials, that said more work on the site of the former White House East Wing is still needed to meet the agency’s “safety and security requirements.” The filing did not explain the specific national security concerns; the administration has offered to share classified details with the judge in a private, in-person setting without the plaintiffs present.
▶ Read more about the court filing
Here’s a look at key moments in Trump fights with the media in his second term:
The 33-page lawsuit filed in Florida accuses the BBC of broadcasting a “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious depiction of President Trump,” calling it “ a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence ” the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
It accuses the BBC of “splicing together two entirely separate parts of President Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021” in order to ”intentionally misrepresent the meaning of what President Trump said.” It seeks $5 billion in damages for defamation and $5 billion for unfair trade practices.
The broadcaster apologized last month to Trump over the edit of the speech he gave before his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. But the publicly funded BBC rejected claims it had defamed him, after Trump threatened legal action.
BBC chairman Samir Shah had called the edit an “error of judgment,” which triggered the resignations of the BBC’s top executive and its head of news.
▶ Read more about the lawsuit
President Donald Trump speaks during a Mexican Border Defense Medal presentation in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, in Washington, as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, looks on. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
