Dive Brief:
- Defense systems manufacturer Dzyne Technologies will build a 125,000-square-foot autonomous technology development facility in Irvine, California, the company announced in a Nov. 29 press release.
- The facility will provide the company with additional space for the development of autonomous defense solutions for U.S. and international customers, and will host Dzyne’s engineering, research and manufacturing teams.
- Since 2019, the defense contractor has received over $33 million in funding from the Department of Defense for R&D to develop new autonomous aircraft products, according to USAspending.gov.
Dive Insight:
Dzyne specializes in making unmanned aerial systems technology for the Department of Defense and other government agencies. The manufacturer has been working with the department for years, according to the release.
While the cost of the facility hasn’t been disclosed by the company, the Defense Department's air force awarded Dzyne a nearly $90 million contract in June 2022 to develop, test and demonstrate unmanned aerial system swarming technology. The contract is meant for production in Irvine, California with an expected completion date of June 15, 2027.
Dzyne has also taken advantage of the Pentagon’s recent The Replicator Initiative, created in September to increase innovation for the U.S. military, especially as it tries to compete with China.
“With the recently announced Replicator Initiative, we feel we are now perfectly suited to meet the Department's increased demand for autonomous defense capabilities,” Dzyne President and co-founder Matt McCue said in the release. “Dzyne’s UAS are designed to meet the evolving needs of our warfighters and are expected to play a critical role in future operations for the U.S. and its allies.”
The initiative aims to expedite large-scale production and delivery of new technologies by leveraging current funding, programming lines and authorities, according to a Sept 7. Defense Department news release.
"We've set a big goal for replicator: to field attritable, autonomous systems at a scale of multiple thousands [and] in multiple domains within the next 18-to-24 months," Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks said in a statement.
The Irvine facility isn't Dzyne’s only manufacturing site in California. It opened another production facility in October 2020 in Foothill Ranch, California, where it focuses on making products for autonomous vehicles, space, commercial and military aerospace and automotive industries.
