AeroVironment and Kratos are often bracketed together as the publicly traded mid-tier of US defence drones, the names a procurement officer reaches for below the legacy majors, and the bracket is fair but the overlap is smaller than it looks. AeroVironment is the loitering-munitions leader, maker of the Switchblade family, that used a $4.1 billion acquisition of BlueHalo, completed in May 2025, to extend into directed energy, electronic warfare, and space, closing fiscal 2026 with $1.98 billion of revenue, up 141 percent year over year. Kratos is the attritable-aircraft and target-drone specialist behind the XQ-58 Valkyrie and the BQM-167, building its own Spartan turbojet to control propulsion supply. Both are listed, both are scaling on the same autonomous-systems demand, but one leads in munitions and multi-domain effects while the other leads in uncrewed jets and aerial targets.
Side By Side
| AeroVironment | Kratos Defense & Security Solutions | |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 1971 | 1994 |
| Headquarters | Arlington, Virginia, USA | San Diego, California, USA |
| Status | Public (NASDAQ: AVAV) | Public (NASDAQ: KTOS) |
| Indicative Annual Revenue | $1.98B (fiscal 2026, up 141% YoY) | Roughly $1B+ (defence and target systems) |
| Core Franchise | Switchblade loitering munitions; small UAS | Attritable combat jets and target drones |
| Flagship Systems | Switchblade 300/600 (Block 2 and 20), Puma, JUMP 20 | XQ-58 Valkyrie, BQM-167, MQM-178 Firejet |
| Recent M&A | Acquired BlueHalo for $4.1B (closed May 2025) | Organic; in-house Spartan turbojet facility |
| Expanded Domains | Directed energy, electronic warfare, space and cyber (via BlueHalo) | Propulsion, hypersonic and target systems |
| Recent Contract Signal | Switchblade $743M ceiling; $186M US Army Block 2/20 order | USMC MUX TACAIR with Northrop ($231.5M initial OTA) |
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MUNITIONS AND MULTI-DOMAIN VERSUS AIRCRAFT AND TARGETS
AeroVironment's centre of gravity is the loitering munition. The Switchblade family is among the most combat-proven expendable strike systems in Western inventories, and demand has driven a $743 million contract ceiling and a $186 million US Army order for the next-generation Block 2 and Block 20 variants. The BlueHalo acquisition then widened the company well beyond air vehicles, into directed-energy counter-UAS, electronic warfare, and space and cyber, making AeroVironment the rare mid-tier prime spanning platforms, munitions, and effects in one portfolio.
Kratos sits in an adjacent but distinct lane. Its franchise is the uncrewed jet and the aerial target: the XQ-58 Valkyrie for collaborative combat aircraft work, the BQM-167 and Firejet for the target-drone base that funds the business, and an in-house Spartan turbojet line to secure the propulsion that every high-speed expendable platform depends on. Where AeroVironment expanded horizontally across domains, Kratos integrated vertically down the aircraft and propulsion stack.
TWO WAYS TO SCALE A PUBLIC DEFENCE PRIME
Both companies are listed, which gives buyers revenue, backlog, and balance-sheet visibility that private peers cannot match, and both are growing on the same structural demand for autonomous and attritable systems. The strategic divergence is in how they scaled. AeroVironment bought its way into new domains with BlueHalo, taking on integration risk in exchange for a multi-domain franchise and a step-change in revenue, with fiscal 2026 second-quarter revenue up sharply year on year.
Drone Intelligence assessment: the two are more often layered than substituted in a force design. A unit fielding AeroVironment Switchblades for organic strike and BlueHalo directed energy for counter-UAS can simultaneously rely on Kratos attritable jets and targets for the air-dominance and test-and-evaluation missions, because the portfolios barely overlap. The honest comparison is therefore less which company wins and more which mission the buyer is procuring for: expendable strike and multi-domain effects point to AeroVironment, uncrewed combat aircraft and aerial targets point to Kratos.
When To Choose
Choose AeroVironment if:
- Loitering munitions and organic expendable strike (Switchblade)
- Directed-energy counter-UAS, electronic warfare, or space and cyber (via BlueHalo)
- A single multi-domain mid-tier prime spanning platforms, munitions and effects
Choose Kratos Defense & Security Solutions if:
- Uncrewed combat aircraft and collaborative-combat-aircraft programmes
- Aerial target drones for live-fire training and weapons evaluation
- Secured high-speed propulsion through an in-house turbojet supply
Full Profiles
AeroVironment
Arlington, Virginia, USA · NASDAQ: AVAV
Publicly listed defence and commercial UAS prime. Loitering munitions, ISR, and counter-UAS, expanded into space and directed energy through the BlueHalo acquisition.
View profile →Kratos Defense & Security Solutions
Round Rock, Texas, USA · NASDAQ: KTOS
Diversified US defence supplier whose unmanned-aircraft business includes jet-powered target drones and the Valkyrie tactical aircraft.
View profile →Sources & References
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Drone Intelligence, Comparison. Compiled from public filings, company disclosures and specialist reporting. Last updated 20 August 2026.
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