Quantum Systems shows its California assembly line
Two weeks after showing its Reliant drone loaded with mortar rounds and grenades, Quantum Systems has shown the aircraft on its production line in Southern California.
Dave Sharpin, chief executive of Quantum-Systems Inc., the U.S. arm of the German drone maker, shared the images on social media earlier this week from the company’s plant in Moorpark, California.
Sharpin wrote that the Reliant drones were “on the production floor in Moorpark, CA.”
The Reliant takes off and lands straight up like a helicopter, then flies on its wings like a small plane. It has a 3.9-meter (12.8-foot) wingspan and more than 10 hours of endurance from a hybrid-electric power system, and the upgraded version announced in July has a maximum takeoff weight of 45 kg (99 pounds).
Quantum Systems built it for long-range reconnaissance. That changed on Oct. 28, when Sharpin shared images of an armed configuration carrying 82 mm mortar rounds and 40 mm grenades on its wing hardpoints.
Those hardpoints first appeared on a version the company developed for U.S. customers. They can carry extra modules and release munitions or smaller drones, including the Archer, a first-person-view attack drone built by California’s Neros that the U.S. Marine Corps recently flew with live warheads in Japan.
The Reliant is the largest of the company’s aircraft, above the short-range Twister and the mid-range Vector. The Vector made the company’s name in Ukraine, where Sharpin has said it has flown more than 20,000 combat hours. One Vector came back from a mission after it “was struck 11 times by small arms fire.”
The Moorpark plant covers 135,000 square feet and opened in June 2025, when the company said it would build Vector AI, Twister and Reliant there. U.S. Special Operations Command had earlier committed $20 million to expand the company’s production capacity in the United States.
So far, the company’s biggest sale to a U.S. military service is the smaller Vector AI. In April, the U.S. Army awarded Quantum-Systems Inc. $15.3 million to field it with Brigade Combat Teams.
“The future is unmanned,” Sharpin wrote.
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Quantum Systems showcased its Reliant drone on the production line in Moorpark, California, now armed with 82 mm mortar rounds and 40 mm grenades. The drone features a 3.9-meter wingspan and over 10 hours of endurance. U.S. Special Operations Command has invested $20 million to expand production capacity, and the company previously secured a $15.3 million contract from the U.S. Army for its Vector AI drone.
- Quantum Systems showcased the Reliant drone on its production line in Moorpark, California.
- The Reliant drone is armed with 82 mm mortar rounds and 40 mm grenades.
- The drone has a wingspan of 3.9 meters and over 10 hours of endurance.
- U.S. Special Operations Command committed $20 million to expand production capacity.
- Quantum Systems received a $15.3 million contract from the U.S. Army for the Vector AI drone.