Head of Growth

Mach Industries selects nominal to run test infrastructure for its next-generation strike and surveillance systems. The partnership brings automated readiness decisions and full traceability from the simulation to the factory floor. March 24, 2026 06:00 ET | Source: Nominal, Inc. LOS ANGELES, March 24, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) - Nominal, the connected test and operations platform for complex hardware systems, today announced that Mach Industries, developer of next-generation unmanned systems for the U.S. Army, Air Force, and Special Operations Command, has selected Nominal as its engineering, test and operations data infrastructure. The partnership spans Mach's entire development arc - from early flight test through high-rate production at Forge, its flagship manufacturing facility in Huntington Beach. Mach Industries designs and produces unmanned systems, including Viper, its jet-powered vertical-takeoff UAV; Glide, a high-altitude precision strike platform; and Stratos, a persistent stratospheric platform for customers including the U.S. Army, Air Force, and Special Operations Command. As Mach's program portfolio expanded and flight test tempo increased, its engineering teams needed a way to ingest and compare test data across distributed teams and facilities without losing the traceability that active DoW programs demand. With Nominal, Mach's engineers ingest test data from each flight and ground run in seconds, enabling real-time, post-test review and cross-run comparison from a unified platform. Engineering teams use Nominal's automated checks and workbooks to define what "good" looks like and to flag anomalies early, before they compound across a growing fleet of systems. As Mach advances toward higher flight test cadence and scales manufacturing at Forge, next phases of the partnership will bring automated go/no-go reporting and direct requirements-to-test traceability - the connective tissue between what a system is supposed to do and what it actually did during testing. Nominal supports Mach's rapid "fly-fix-fly" cycles with rigor, enabling the delivery of breakthrough capabilities at the speed of operational relevance. The Mach partnership extends Nominal's footprint into next-generation aerial and strike programs and reinforces a pattern the company has seen across its customer base: the teams moving fastest are also the most disciplined about data.The partnership also demonstrates that speed and rigor are not in tension, but compound when teams have the right data foundation. "Mach is building some of the most capable unmanned systems in the world, and they're building them fast. Nominal gives their engineers the data infrastructure to match that pace without cutting corners on rigor," said Cameron McCord, CEO and co-founder of Nominal. "National security depends on America's ability to field asymmetric capability faster than adversaries can respond. Nominal helps us compress the loop between test and production so we can do exactly that," said Ethan Thornton, founder and CEO of Mach Industries. The Nominal platform connects data across simulation runs, bench tests, and live flight telemetry, giving Mach's engineers a consistent analytical environment regardless of test phase or location. As Mach scales flight test tempo and brings Forge online for high-rate production, Nominal's connected test infrastructure provides the traceability layer that links component performance to system-level outcomes, from simulators to the factory floor to the field. About Mach Industries Founded in 2023, Mach Industries is a defense manufacturing company headquartered in Huntington Beach, California. The company develops advanced unmanned systems and the manufacturing infrastructure to scale their production. By vertically integrating weapons, propulsion, and manufacturing, Mach delivers the speed, adaptability, and resilience required to preserve the allied edge in an increasingly contested world. For more information, please visit us at machindustries.com and follow us on LinkedIn and X About Nominal Founded in 2022, Nominal is built on the belief that learning from tests faster than the threat is how the United States builds lasting technological advantage. By turning testing into a continuous, secure source of truth across complex programs, Nominal helps the government and its partners field mission-critical systems with speed and confidence. For more information, visit nominal.io. Follow Nominal on LinkedIn and X. Release Summary Nominal powers Mach Industries' UAV test infrastructure - connecting simulation to factory floor and compressing test-to-production loops for rapid fielding. Recommended reading. Explore. March 24, 2026 08:00 ET March 24, 2026 08:10 ET March 24, 2026 08:02 ET March 24, 2026 08:00 ET March 24, 2026 08:10 ET March 24, 2026 08:02 ET March 24, 2026 08:00 ET

Mach Industries, a defence manufacturing company specialising in advanced unmanned systems, has opened a new hub in San Francisco to strengthen collaboration and support growth amid rising demand from the US military and allied partners. The company's headquarters will remain at its 115,000-square-foot Forge 1 facility in Huntington Beach, California. Founder and CEO Ethan Thornton said the San Francisco expansion enables faster movement within the broader technology ecosystem whilst strengthening existing engineering, prototyping and manufacturing operations. The Bay Area's concentration of technical talent, research institutions and emerging technologies makes it a critical centre for the company's rapid iteration and growth. Founded in 2023, Mach Industries vertically integrates weapons, propulsion and manufacturing to deliver speed and adaptability for military applications.

U.S. firms test Venom autonomous strike aircraft. Feb 18, 2026 Modified date: Feb 18, 2026 Key Points * Divergent Technologies and Mach Industries launched the Venom autonomous strike aircraft prototype developed from concept to flight readiness in 71 days. * The project demonstrates rapid aircraft development using digital manufacturing and modular systems aligned with U.S. missile and drone acquisition efforts. Divergent Technologies and Mach Industries announced on Feb. 17, 2026, in Los Angeles that they have jointly launched Venom, an autonomous strike aircraft prototype developed and brought to flight readiness in 71 days, demonstrating rapid hardware development enabled by digital manufacturing and modular system design. According to a joint announcement from the companies, the Venom aircraft serves as a flight demonstration platform designed to show how defense hardware can move from concept to operational prototype using software-driven engineering and production methods. The project combines Mach Industries' system architecture and avionics integration with Divergent's digital manufacturing technology. The prototype was developed using a modular open-systems architecture established by Mach Industries, which leveraged avionics and simulation tools derived from existing flight-proven technology stacks. Divergent executed the digital design and additive manufacturing of the aircraft's primary structure, including wings, fuselage, skins, and control surfaces, producing them as monolithic assemblies rather than traditional multi-part aerospace constructions. - ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW - Discover more Unmanned aerial vehicle "This partnership between Mach Industries and Divergent demonstrates a pivotal capability for the nation. By combining Mach's innovative systems with Divergent's revolutionary digital manufacturing platform, we've moved from concept to a flight-ready prototype in 71 days," said Alex Lovett, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of War for Mission Capabilities in the Office of the Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering. "This isn't just an impressive metric - it's a direct enabler of our strategy to achieve affordable mass and support the SECWAR's 'Drone Dominance' vision. ODASW(P&E) is committed to sponsoring collaborations like this that accelerate rapid acquisition and deliver urgent, low-cost munitions to the warfighter." The companies said Venom was enabled by Divergent's Adaptive Production System (DAPS), a manufacturing approach that replaces complex multi-hundred-part assemblies with unified additively manufactured structures. As noted by the company, this process reduces overall part counts while accelerating production timelines and simplifying manufacturing workflows. "Going from inception to flight in 71 days is a clear demonstration of what's possible when Divergent's Adaptive Production System is utilized from day one. This is what production at the speed of relevance looks like," said Lukas Czinger, co-founder and chief executive officer of Divergent. "Most importantly, Divergent will drive the rapid scale-up of this system, producing thousands of airframes annually. Partnering with Mach has been an immediate win and reflects two mission-aligned, innovative companies executing at maximum pace." Mach Industries established baseline system requirements and conducted iterative testing using a shared simulation and control framework that allowed hardware and software development to proceed simultaneously. The companies said this parallel engineering model enabled accelerated validation cycles and reduced the timeline between initial design and first flight. "Over the last 18 months Mach has taken four products from concept to flight test through rapid iteration, and Divergent's adaptive tech stack has been instrumental in accelerating that iteration," said Ethan Thornton, founder and chief executive officer of Mach Industries. "Mach's selection for a production contract is the first of many opportunities to show not only speed to prototype, but speed to scaled manufacturing." Venom represents a prototype autonomous strike aircraft intended to demonstrate rapid acquisition concepts rather than an announced operational deployment. The platform integrates autonomous flight capability with scalable manufacturing techniques aimed at producing airframes more quickly than traditional aerospace programs. Readers who wish to follow its weekly coverage can subscribe to the Weekly Defense Roundup. If you wish to report a grammatical or factual error in this article, please let Defence Blog know by using the online form. Executive Editor