Neros

Defense Tech · Drones · Manufacturing

Funding

Neros secures $450M Pentagon loan to scale US drone manufacturing

The deal reflects a Pentagon push to rebuild domestic drone component supply chains as Russia outproduces the US by millions of units a year.

• Neros signed a conditional loan commitment of up to $450 million from the Pentagon's Office of Strategic Capital, adding $165 million of its own equity for a $615 million total project to expand drone and component manufacturing in Torrance, California.
• Neros, founded in 2023 by former drone racers Soren Monroe-Anderson and Olaf Hichwa, builds the Archer FPV attack drone and the Bandit counter-drone interceptor, and was already valued at $2.5 billion after an August Series C.
• The funding targets vertical integration, bringing motors, radios, flight electronics, sensors and batteries in-house, with the Torrance plant also set to sell NDAA-compliant parts to other US and allied drone makers.
• Neros aims to hit one million drones a year by 2028, up from roughly 62,000 a year (1,200 a week) as of August — about a sixteenfold jump in output.
• The loan is conditional: Neros must still clear financial, legal, technical and due-diligence requirements before any money is released, mirroring OSC's earlier $820 million commitment to Performance Drone Works.
• Neros says the arrangement gives American taxpayers a small ownership stake in the company with no voting rights, a claim OSC's own release does not mention.
• The commitment advances Executive Order 14307 on 'Unleashing American Drone Dominance,' with officials warning the US is starting from near zero in mass drone production versus Russia's expected 7.3 million units this year.
• The loan marks a shift in Pentagon strategy from buying finished drones to financing the domestic parts supply chain, aiming to cut the wider US drone industry's reliance on Chinese components.