Veteran-led drone company moves into North Texas airport

XMX Defense, a Texas-based developer of military drones, has begun converting hangars and buildings at Mineral Wells Regional Airport, about 80 km (50 miles) west of Fort Worth, into a site for assembling, maintaining and flying unmanned aircraft.

The company held a groundbreaking ceremony at the airport on Oct. 3. It has leased several existing facilities there and started preparing them for aircraft assembly, systems integration, engineering, maintenance, training and flight operations, XMX said in an announcement.

XMX has not said how much it is investing in the site, how many people it plans to hire, or when the first aircraft will be built or flown there. The company also did not name any military customers or contracts tied to the Mineral Wells operation.

XMX describes itself as an American defense technology company building unmanned aircraft for defense, government and special-mission users. Its lineup runs from smaller tactical drones to the ROGUE 450, a hybrid-electric aircraft that takes off and lands vertically and is designed for longer missions.

Hybrid-electric designs pair batteries and electric motors with a fuel-burning engine or generator. The setup lets a vertical takeoff drone launch without a runway while carrying enough energy to stay in the air longer than a battery-only aircraft of similar size. XMX has not published range, endurance or payload figures for the ROGUE 450.

“Most of us in the company are veterans of some kind,” said Clay Kroschel, co-founder and CEO of XMX Defense.

Kroschel said the company has “built XMX around a mission to provide the technology and capabilities that help bring our men and women home safe.”

“We’re honored to do that work in a community like Mineral Wells, with such a strong defense aviation history,” Kroschel said.

Just outside the city sits the former Fort Wolters, which served as the U.S. Army’s primary helicopter training center during the Vietnam War era, when large numbers of Army aviators learned to fly there before moving on to advanced training and deployment. The post closed in 1973, but the Texas Army National Guard still uses part of the former installation as a training area for air-supported exercises.

“There’s a real through-line in Mineral Wells’ aviation history,” said Mayor Pro Tem Beth Watson. “This community helped train a generation of helicopter pilots when vertical flight was changing the way the Army operated. Decades later, the next generation of vertical flight technology is coming to our airport through unmanned aircraft. We’re proud to welcome XMX and excited to see these facilities put back to work.”

The ceremony drew state and local officials along with county and civic leaders from Palo Pinto and Parker counties, where economic development officials hope the project will pull more aerospace and defense work westward from the Fort Worth area.

“Mineral Wells sits in a unique position,” said Chris Strayer, executive director of the Parker County Economic Development Council. “It’s connected to the aerospace and defense strength of North Texas, but it also has the space and infrastructure to grow something of its own. We’ve seen in other parts of the country how one unmanned-aircraft company can become the nucleus for a broader cluster of suppliers, manufacturers, engineers, and technology companies.”

XMX also plans to use the site to set up what it calls the Texas Unmanned Systems Defense Center of Excellence. The company says the effort would bring defense and unmanned-systems firms together to share infrastructure and operations at the airport.