AIRO Completes Major Delivery of its RQ-35 ISTAR UAS, Highlighting Production Scale

MCLEAN, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 16, 2026--

AIRO Group Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: AIRO), a next-generation aerospace and defense company, today announced the successful delivery of a major unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) order to a global defense customer. Completed during the second quarter of 2026, the delivery highlights the continued expansion of AIRO’s autonomous systems business.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260716178419/en/

The delivery marks another milestone in AIRO’s strategy to expand its portfolio of proprietary technologies, increase the value delivered on each platform, and strengthen its ability to scale production for allied defense customers. Importantly, this significant delivery demonstrates AIRO’s ability to respond rapidly to large-volume customer demand, leveraging the strength of its SkyWatch brand’s supply chain, manufacturing capabilities, and operational execution.

The RQ-35 Heidrun is a battle-proven, fixed-wing UAS that gives soldiers and decision-makers real-time intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities. Its onboard mission-centric AI supports detection, recognition and identification, along with customer-specific edge applications.

“Getting proven systems into operators’ hands quickly is what matters most in today’s environment, and this delivery reflects our ability to do exactly that at scale,” said AIRO Executive Chairman Dr. Chirinjeev Kathuria. “As demand for unmanned ISR accelerates across allied forces, our focus is on being the partner that delivers reliable capability when and where it is needed.”

Continuously refined through battlefield feedback and validated in Ukraine, the RQ-35 Heidrun offers up to three hours of endurance, a 50 km operational range, onboard AI processing, electronic warfare-resilient navigation support and a low visual and acoustic profile. The platform is designed for time-sensitive ISTAR, target observation, route reconnaissance and terrain awareness missions.

“This delivery underscores AIRO’s strategy to build and scale advanced unmanned systems that meet the urgent needs of allied defense and security customers,” said Joe Burns, Chief Executive Officer of AIRO. “Because we build the sensor, the autonomy and the airframe in-house, we control quality, cost and delivery in a way competitors relying on outside suppliers cannot. That vertical integration is what let us convert this order into a fielded capability on schedule, and it is how we intend to keep executing against our backlog.”

This major RQ-35 drone delivery demonstrates the continued scaling of AIRO’s unmanned systems production and the growing role of its platforms in allied defense and security operations. The Company remains focused on expanding production capacity, increasing the amount of proprietary technology across its platform, and delivering mission-critical systems that support future growth opportunities across U.S., NATO, and allied markets.

About AIRO Group Holdings, Inc.

AIRO Group Holdings is a next-generation aerospace and defense platform driving innovation across defense and commercial markets. Headquartered in McLean, Va., with operations in the U.S., Canada and Denmark, AIRO combines global reach with deep technical expertise. Through a vertically integrated model, AIRO delivers mission-critical solutions centered on drone platforms, advanced avionics, integrated training capabilities and embedded autonomy.

Forward looking statements

The statements contained in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. You can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as “believes,” “expects,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “seeks,” “intends,” “plans,” “estimates,” or “anticipates,” or similar expressions which concern our strategy, plans, projections or intentions. These forward-looking statements may be included throughout this press release and include, but are not limited to, the expected timing of full-scale production of the RQ-35; AIRO's ability to leverage its existing manufacturing infrastructure and supply chain capabilities; the development, testing, scaling, production, deployment, performance and capabilities of the RQ-35; customer interest in, demand for, market acceptance of and deployment opportunities for the RQ-35 and AIRO's other drone platforms; AIRO’s ability to compete across a broader set of mission requirements and grow its global defense platform; AIRO’s ability to execute its strategic initiatives across U.S., NATO, and allied markets; and other statements that are not historical fact. By their nature, forward-looking statements are not statements of historical fact or guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties, assumptions or changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict or quantify, including those described in the section titled “Risk Factors” in AIRO’s most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), as well as other filings AIRO may make with the SEC in the future. Forward-looking statements represent AIRO’s management’s beliefs and assumptions only as of the date such statements are made. AIRO undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made in this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release or to reflect new information or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law.

Soldier launching the RQ-35 ISTAR UAS

GENOA, Italy (AP) — Family members of the 43 people killed when Genoa’s Morandi highway bridge collapsed nearly eight years ago gathered at a courthouse Thursday, where deliberations were underway in the trial of 57 defendants charged in a disaster that exposed deep failures in the maintenance of Italy’s infrastructure.

The defendants include former executives of highway operator Autostrade per L’Italia, experts from its engineering company SPEA and former officials from Italy’s Infrastructure and Transport Ministry.

Most face charges, including negligent disaster and multiple counts of manslaughter stemming from alleged failures to maintain the bridge, which was part of a main route linking northern Italy with the French Riviera. Deliberations were expected to continue into the afternoon.

"I think it is important that responsibility extends beyond those at the top. Autostrade, SPEA and the Transport Ministry all had roles to play. I hope the state’s responsibility also emerges clearly," Egle Possetti, who heads a committee to preserve the memory of the bridge victims, told reporters outside the courthouse.

“I lost my sister, her two children, my brother-in-law and even their little dog. That’s where my determination comes from — to make sure they receive justice and that their deaths were not in vain,” she said.

On the morning of Aug. 14, 2018, a 200-meter (650-foot) section of the bridge gave way during a rainstorm, sending dozens of vehicles plunging to the ground.

Images of the collapsed bridge were seen around the world and shocked Italians on one of Italy’s busiest travel days, as millions headed out for the traditional Aug. 15 Ferragosto holiday that marks the peak summer vacation season.

Prosecutors have argued that years of maintenance neglect led to the collapse, and demanded combined sentences totaling nearly 400 years for all of the defendants. The defendants deny wrongdoing and say the fault was caused by a construction defect.

The verdicts and sentencing will cap a trial that spanned more than 280 hearings over four years.

“Our expectation is to feel our pain recognized ... and to have it acknowledged that this did not happen by chance, but because of serious failures in maintenance,” said Raffaele Caruso, one of the lawyers representing victims.

Considered an engineering marvel when it opened in 1967, the Morandi featured three A-shaped concrete pylons and concrete-encased stay cables.

Caruso, who represents the family members of three victims, said that the trial showed that warning signs about defects in the pylon that collapsed had existed for decades. He cited maintenance on the other two starting in 1993 that was never extended to the third.

“From 1993 onward, the problem was known. We had three identical pylons. Two had already shown the same defect, and no one seriously asked whether the third one had it as well,” Caruso said.

The current Autostrade chief executive, Arrigo Giana, issued a public apology Thursday in an open letter published in major Italian dailies.

“The actions and decisions of some people left indelible scars,’’ said Giana, who joined Autostrade as CEO last year. “Offering today the apology that was not made then is, for us, a moral imperative that goes beyond establishing legal responsibility and the course of justice toward the truth.”

Autostrade and its subsidiary reached a deal on corporate liability earlier in the proceedings, paying roughly 30 million euros ($34 million) in financial penalties. The agreement spared the companies from a trial as corporate defendants and potentially much harsher sanctions, including exclusion from public contracts.

The settlements were reached after the companies adopted new compliance procedures aimed at preventing similar accidents, and after victims were compensated.

A new bridge designed by Genoa-born Italian architect Renzo Piano opened in 2020, spanning a memorial to the victims of the Morandi Bridge collapse.

Colleen Barry reported from Milan.

FILE - A vehicle sits short of a section of the Morandi highway bridge that collapsed on Aug. 15, 2018, in Genoa, northern Italy. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni, File)

FILE - Cars are blocked on the Morandi highway bridge after a section of it collapsed, Aug. 14, 2018, in Genoa, northern Italy. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni, File)