Oshkosh steps into larger UAS space with new Grid Aero partnership

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. 

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.