Neros gets loan commitment of up to $450M from Department of War. The Department of War's Office of Strategic Capital (OSC) has announced a conditional loan commitment of up to $450 million to Neros, Inc., a U.S.-based developer and manufacturer of dual-use small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS). This investment is intended to support Neros' domestic manufacturing expansion and reduce reliance on foreign-made components. OSC's conditional loan commitment to Neros directly advances President Donald J. Trump's Executive Order 14307, Unleashing American Drone Dominance. OSC financing alongside additional private capital will support Neros' planned expansion of vertically integrated domestic manufacturing capacity to produce dual-use sUAS platforms, ground control systems, and critical components like motors, radios, flight electronics, sensors, and batteries. "Neros has already demonstrated an ability to design, manufacture, and deliver exceptional small unmanned aircraft systems," said David A. Lorch, Director of the Office of Strategic Capital and Senior Advisor to Deputy Secretary of War Steve Feinberg. "OSC's investment will turbocharge Neros' ability to manufacture drones and components critical for the production of drone systems." Neros designs and produces low-cost, high-performance drones. The company's manufacturing facility in Torrance, California will help onshore the production of complete drone systems as well as critical subcomponents including propulsion motors, flight stacks, radios, and thermal sensors. This vertically integrated capacity will support both Neros' internal production and the supply of critical, NDAA-compliant components to other U.S. and allied drone manufacturers. "Winning the drone industrial-base competition requires the United States to be able to manufacture complete systems at scale and at competitive prices for both military and non-military applications. This starts with bolstering the domestic supply of critical components inside all drone systems," said James R. Shanahan, Senior Managing Director (Investments) at OSC. "Neros' vertically integrated approach would support the creation of significant incremental domestic component capacity for Neros and the broader unmanned-systems ecosystem." The conditional loan commitment specifies additional steps Neros must complete before financial close, including satisfying various financial, legal, technical, investment, due diligence and other requirements. "I applaud OSC for helping to strengthen the domestic drone supply chain. Achieving Secretary Hegseth's mandate for American drone dominance requires a secure and resilient industrial base here at home," said Emil Michael, Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering. Since Neros' founding, Skyoptic has believed that the United States and its allies would need scaled production of military drones for credible deterrence against adversarial powers. This funding from the Office of Strategic Capital is a massive endorsement of manufacturing these critical technologies in America, keeping its fighting forces the most lethal in the world, and onshoring the supply chains and components Skyoptic'll rely on during extended conflicts. Soren Monroe-Anderson, CEO and Co-Founder, Neros

Pentagon signs $450M Neros loan to mass-produce domestic drone components. Takeaways Up Front 1. The Department of War's Office of Strategic Capital signed a conditional loan of up to $450 million to Neros on November 2. 2. The money funds domestic parts, motors, radios, electronics, and batteries, plus $165 million in Neros equity for a $615 million project. 3. The supply push arrives as the Pentagon's main high-volume small-drone buying program nears its scheduled close next fall. The Department of War's Office of Strategic Capital signed a conditional loan commitment of up to $450 million to small-drone maker Neros on Nov. 2, backing a domestic push to build the components inside American drones rather than the finished aircraft alone. Neros will add $165 million of its own equity, bringing the project to $615 million, and will expand its factory in Torrance, California, to make motors, radios, flight electronics, sensors and batteries for its own drones and for other U.S. and allied manufacturers. The commitment is not final, and the company must satisfy financial, legal, technical, and due diligence requirements before any money is released. What the loan funds. The financing targets parts, not platforms. Neros builds the Archer, a first-person-view, or FPV, attack quadcopter that an operator flies into a target through video goggles, and the company already assembles it without Chinese parts. The loan backs vertical integration, moving the motors, electronics and batteries inside those drones onto domestic lines. Ross Pedersen, the company's head of growth, said the first motors came off the line last week, with internal electronics, sensors and batteries to follow, in remarks to the defense outlet Tectonic Defense. David Lorch, director of the Office of Strategic Capital, said in a statement that Neros has shown it can design, manufacture and deliver small unmanned aircraft systems, and that the investment would expand its capacity to build drones and the components critical to producing them. Co-founder and Chief Executive Soren Monroe-Anderson said the capital puts Neros on track to produce one million drones a year by 2028. Neros said the government would receive a small, non-voting stake in the company in exchange for the loan, according to Pedersen. The Office of Strategic Capital's release described financing alongside private capital and did not mention an ownership stake. A supply push as the buying pathway nears its end. The loan is the second large OSC drone commitment this year. On July 31, the office offered up to $820 million to Performance Drone Works in Huntsville, Alabama, to mass-produce drone components. Both deals follow Executive Order 14307, Unleashing American Drone Dominance, signed in June 2025, and a fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, provision that bars the Department of War from buying batteries made with materials from foreign entities of concern, including China, starting January 1, 2028. Neros has won steady government work this year, including an Army contract worth up to $500 million for the Archer and an order for 14,000 drones and explosive payloads valued at more than $100 million through the Pentagon's Drone Dominance Program. That program, a roughly $1 billion effort to buy more than 200,000 small drones by 2028, is the main high-volume pathway U.S. makers have had. Pedersen said the department is backing a components base hard while little procurement budget for small drones remains once Drone Dominance ends. "We're going to be able to produce all these components, but then what?" he said to Tectonic Defense. What's Next: The Drone Dominance competition entered a bomber-testing round in October and is set to run a further phase next spring before concluding next fall. Neither side disclosed the loan's interest rate, term, or repayment schedule. SOFX Editor Staff Contributor · SOFX Stay ahead of global conflict, security, and technology. Get the #1 daily intel report for decision-makers on global conflict, security, and technology. Over 72,000 leaders trust The SOFX Report to deliver apolitical, fact-based news on issues impacting their lives.

US Defense Department signs a conditional loan of up to $450m with Neros to fund domestic drone manufacturing expansion. 02 Nov 2026 15:06 Energy US Indexes US Stocks USD