$20 million expansion coming to Huntsville defense technology facility

Defense tech firm AeroVironment announced this week it will invest $20.2 million into its Huntsville facility.

The 24,000-square-foot expansion aims to increase quantities of Low-Rate Initial Production (LRIP) and accelerate future Full-Rate Production (FRP) of the Next-Generation Counter-Unmanned Aircraft System Missile (NGCM), known as Freedom Eagle-1 (FE-1). 

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AeroVironment’s $20 million Huntsville expansion

NGCM at Scale.

AV is investing $20.2M to expand our Huntsville, AL facility—adding 24,000 sq. ft. of advanced manufacturing capacity to scale Freedom Eagle-1 production and deliver the next generation of counter-UAS defense.

This isn't just expansion. It's strategic… pic.twitter.com/HTMzEdQtxw

— AV (@aerovironment) May 26, 2026

The expanded site will serve as the system-level integration, manufacturing, and production hub for FE-1, enabling rapid interceptor production and accelerated delivery timelines to meet urgent U.S. Army and Combatant Command operational needs.  

“Growing our presence in Huntsville places AV more firmly at the center of the Army’s air and missile defense ecosystem, enabling tighter integration, faster iteration and more efficient production at scale.

That proximity is critical as we begin production of Freedom Eagle-1, a system designed to deliver a scalable, cost-effective response to increasingly complex and high-volume aerial threats.”

_{Wahid Nawabi, Chairman, President + Chief Executive Officer at AV}

In March, AV announced a $97 million contract to design and integrate prototype test environments for next-generation missile defense sensor testing at Redstone Arsenal.

According to company officials, the expansion in Huntsville reflects AV’s broader strategy to scale domestic manufacturing capacity. The news comes following the announcement of a $30 million expansion of AV’s Albuquerque campus, a move that is expected to “generate more than $670 million in economic impact over the next decade, create more than 450 high-wage jobs and boost production of mission-critical defense and space technologies.”

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