AeroVironment ($AVAV) Stock Hub: BlueHalo $99.8M Contract Ceiling, $1.7M Initially Funded

01 Q1 FY2027: what the September 9 results show

AeroVironment reported first-quarter fiscal 2027 results on September 9, 2026, for the quarter ended August 1. Revenue rose 6% to $480.5 million and funded backlog reached $1.5 billion. Adjusted EPS improved to $0.59, but adjusted EBITDA declined to $53.4 million and SCDE remained loss-making. Revenue and adjusted earnings guidance for fiscal 2027 were maintained.

The quarter ended August 1, 2026. The September 2 E-HEL award and September 8 international LOCUST order occurred after that cutoff and must not be added to the $1.5 billion backlog reported at August 1. The earnings call was scheduled for September 9 at 4:30 p.m. ET; this update uses the results release and its tables, not call commentary.

Adjusted EBITDA margin was approximately 11.1%, versus 12.4% a year earlier (calculated from the release). The earnings-per-share improvement therefore does not imply improving EBITDA profitability. Lower amortization and financing costs contributed to the recovery in GAAP results.

Form 8-K · September 9, 2026 · Company results release

02 Executive summary

The September 11, 2026 U.S. government contract notice awards Blue Halo LLC a $99,832,117 IDIQ ceiling for space-systems research under the Leveraged Orbital Battlespace Optimization program. The news was recirculated September 14; September 11 is the official announcement date. This award follows the August 1 quarter-end and therefore does not change the historical Q1 FY2027 revenue or $1.5 billion funded-backlog snapshot. It provides a further BlueHalo space-research opportunity, but does not establish a guidance increase, a margin contribution or remediation of internal-control weaknesses. Subsequent task orders, funding and execution are the evidence to monitor.

AeroVironment reported first-quarter fiscal 2027 results on September 9, 2026, for the quarter ended August 1. Revenue rose 6% to $480.5 million and funded backlog reached $1.5 billion. Adjusted EPS improved to $0.59, but adjusted EBITDA declined to $53.4 million and SCDE remained loss-making. Revenue and adjusted earnings guidance for fiscal 2027 were maintained.

Quarterly bookings of $0.7 billion produced a 1.4 book-to-bill ratio. Funded backlog reached $1.5 billion, up 37% year over year. Operating cash flow turned positive at $13.5 million. Subsequent LOCUST awards add demand visibility, while FY2027 revenue and adjusted profit ranges remain intact.

Adjusted EBITDA fell to $53.4 million from $56.6 million despite revenue growth. SCDE lost $8.9 million at the segment adjusted EBITDA level. Unbilled receivables rose to $637.8 million and inventories to $410.8 million. Operating cash flow did not cover capital expenditure; the earlier disclosed accounting-control weaknesses are not established as remediated by this release.

Autonomous Systems generated $346.0 million of revenue and $62.3 million of segment adjusted EBITDA, compared with $285.3 million and $52.8 million a year earlier. SCDE generated $134.5 million of revenue and negative $8.9 million of segment adjusted EBITDA, against $169.4 million and positive $3.8 million. These are the comparative segment figures supplied in the current release.

Form 8-K · September 9, 2026 · Company results release

03 Market Data And Peer Comparison

Historical reference: figures and charts in this section retain their original dates. Current quarterly results and guidance are in sections 01, 07 and 08.

Price and performance figures below are based on the completed session of Monday, August 24, 2026. Float, ownership, short interest, average volume and the consensus target are from Finviz, read on August 25, 2026 before the U.S. open. Performance is calculated on closing prices against the same reference session: week means five trading sessions, month twenty-one, quarter sixty-three and half year one hundred and twenty-six. Company financial figures come from SEC filings and company releases, each carrying its own reference date.

August 24 was a heavy session for the stock and for the group around it. $AVAV opened at $159.61, traded down to $148.14 and closed at $148.20, a fall of 7.5% against the $160.22 close of August 21, on 1.24 million shares. The same day carried the Moorpark campus announcement described in section 04, and the two facts sit in the same session without the release explaining the move: every peer in the table below also closed lower over the preceding five sessions, by between 7.7% and 18.2%.

Peer comparison, all figures at the August 24, 2026 close. Market capitalisation is shares outstanding times that close; short float, ownership and consensus targets were read on August 25, 2026.

Two things stand out in that table. The first is that the whole group fell over the five sessions to August 24, so the $AVAV move is not company-specific in isolation, even though it is the largest of the eight. The second is the year-to-date column, where the spread runs from $RDW at plus 49.74% to $AVAV at minus 38.73%: within one sector label, 2026 has separated the names that carry a funded programme story from the ones carrying an accounting or execution overhang.

On analyst coverage the honest position is a narrow one. The consensus target above is a Finviz aggregate of third-party estimates read on August 25, 2026. Individual houses, ratings and note dates were not verified for this update, so no coverage table is presented. A consensus figure without named notes behind it is a market-data point, not research, and it is neither a company figure nor a Merlintrader forecast. At $225.11 it sits 51.9% above the August 24 close, which is a measure of how far third-party estimates are from the current price, not a target Merlintrader endorses.

04 Verified developments, most recent first

The September 11, 2026 U.S. government contract notice awards Blue Halo LLC a $99,832,117 IDIQ ceiling for space-systems research under the Leveraged Orbital Battlespace Optimization program. The news was recirculated September 14; September 11 is the official announcement date. Only $1,696,597 was obligated at award, for two initial task orders whose combined ceiling is $20,178,910. The three figures have different meanings: the overall contract limit, the two-order limit and funds actually obligated. Neither ceiling equals revenue or fully funded backlog. Official U.S. government contract notice — September 11, 2026

August 26, 2026 — a $51 million U.S. Army delivery order for Switchblade 600

AeroVironment announced receipt of a $51 million delivery order from the United States Army for additional Switchblade 600 Block 2 loitering munition systems. The order also includes Switchblade 600 Block 1 systems in support of a Foreign Military Sale to what the release calls a key United States ally, without naming the country. The award was placed under the Army’s existing five-year, $990 million indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract for Lethal Unmanned Systems, originally issued in August 2024, and follows the $186 million delivery order announced on February 26, 2026 against the same vehicle.

This is the mechanism set out in section 09, visible once more in practice. The $990 million LUS ceiling has never counted toward backlog on its own; each delivery order placed against it moves a defined amount out of the ceiling and into funded backlog. Two orders against that vehicle are now public, $186 million in February and $51 million in August. Their sum, $237 million of the $990 million ceiling, is our own addition of the two announced figures: the company publishes no running total, and any order not announced separately would not appear in it.

On fielding, the release states that Switchblade 600 has been deployed across more than 20 brigade combat teams since 2025, with hundreds of U.S. soldiers trained on the system. Block 2 was developed in collaboration with United States Special Operations Command and carries upgraded avionics, SPOTR automatic target recognition, Silvus MANET radios for distributed operations and extended handoff ranges, and navigation intended to work in GPS-challenged environments. Brian Young, senior vice president of loitering munitions, is the executive quoted.

What the release does not contain: a delivery schedule, a number of units, the identity of the Foreign Military Sale customer, the split between Block 1 and Block 2 inside the $51 million, and any revision to fiscal 2027 guidance. No Form 8-K was filed for this order, which is what one would expect for an award of this size against a vehicle that already exists. Source: Business Wire, August 26, 2026.

August 24, 2026 — a $100 million owned campus at Moorpark, California

AeroVironment announced a planned $100 million investment in a company-owned campus on approximately 20 acres in Moorpark, California, which will bring together teams and capabilities from five leased Southern California locations across research, engineering, design, prototyping and production. The company closed on the primary property during its fiscal second quarter, which runs from August to October 2026. Renovation and construction are expected to begin in fiscal 2028, employee transitions are to happen in phases, and the campus is expected to be fully operational in 2029.

Two details matter more than the headline figure. The first is that the investment sits inside capital expenditures already contained in the previously issued fiscal 2027 guidance, so it is not incremental spending against the numbers in section 08. The second is the timing: construction starting in fiscal 2028 and full operation in 2029 places the operating benefit well beyond the current guidance period, while the property purchase lands in the quarter now under way. Chief operating officer Rob Smith framed the rationale as reducing the friction of operating across multiple sites; chairman, president and chief executive Wahid Nawabi framed it as a commitment to California, where the company was founded more than five decades ago. The release disclosed no headcount target, no square footage for the planned production space and no expected cost saving from consolidating the five leases.

August 20, 2026 — AV Eagle joint venture in Greece

AeroVironment announced AV Eagle, a majority-owned joint venture with Athens-based Eyeonix SA, after completing the definitive shareholders agreement and securing foreign-direct-investment approval from Greece’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. AV Eagle is expected to become operational in fiscal 2027. The companies are considering a Greek facility that could manufacture and assemble uncrewed aircraft, loitering munitions and counter-UAS systems, with production capability targeted for 2028 as requirements and customer opportunities mature. AeroVironment will consolidate the venture, and said its initial capital contribution was already included in prior financial guidance. The release disclosed no contract value, customer order, committed facility investment or incremental revenue guidance.

July 29, 2026 — board retirement disclosed

AeroVironment filed a Form 8-K reporting that on July 23 director Stephen F. Page notified the board of his decision to retire and not stand for re-election. His term ends at the start of the 2026 annual meeting, anticipated for September 24, 2026. The filing states the decision was not due to any disagreement with the company, its auditors or its advisers.

July 29, 2026 — Applied Intuition collaboration on Mayhem 10

AeroVironment and Applied Intuition announced a strategic collaboration integrating Applied Intuition’s Acuity ISR/Strike autonomy software with Mayhem 10, AeroVironment’s launched-effects system. The companies said a demonstration validated collaborative autonomy behaviors across multiple Mayhem 10 units. Mayhem 10 carries a 10-pound payload, operates beyond 100 kilometers with more than 50 minutes of endurance, and is built on the Switchblade lineage. No contract value was disclosed.

July 20, 2026 — $117.3 million U.S. Army production contract for P550

The Army awarded a $117.3 million production contract for the P550 electric vertical take-off and landing system covering 82 aircraft in support of the Battalion Reconnaissance effort, issued under a Basic Ordering Agreement through a competitive Call for Solutions on the Army’s UAS Marketplace. AeroVironment described it as the initial full-rate procurement of P550.

July 13, 2026 — Italian MQ-31A designation for JUMP 20

Italy’s Directorate of Aeronautical Armaments and Airworthiness granted an MQ-31A military designation for the JUMP 20 uncrewed aircraft system supplied to the Italian Army, following the April 2025 contract. The company said JUMP 20 is in use with Italy, Denmark, Lithuania and the Czech Republic, has more than 70 integrated payloads and over 500,000 flight hours, with 13-plus hours of endurance and 185 kilometers of range.

July 8, 2026 — investor day and fiscal 2030 targets

At its 2026 investor day in New York, AeroVironment introduced fiscal 2030 targets of $3.5 billion to $4.0 billion of revenue, described as a 15% to 20% organic compound annual growth rate, research and development at 7% to 9% of revenue, and adjusted EBITDA margins of 18% to 20%. These are company targets for a year four fiscal years out, not guidance for fiscal 2027.

July 7, 2026 — $30 million Puma award for Germany’s LARUS program

AeroVironment was awarded a $30 million contract to supply what it called the entire Puma capability stack to Germany’s LARUS program, managed by BAAINBw: laser designator kits for Puma LE, signals-intelligence payloads, Puma VTOL kits, Kinesis-enabled ground control stations, mobile ad hoc network relay kits, autonomy retrofit kits and a support package.

July 6, 2026 — $500 million counter-UAS IDIQ and an $80.5 million Titan award

Two separate announcements on the same day. The first: a three-year, $500 million sole-source indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract supporting Joint Interagency Task Force 401’s Domestic Shield program, with the Department of War having announced the award on July 1. AeroVironment stated plainly that it “will release more news as task and delivery orders are executed against the IDIQ.” The second: an $80.5 million award for Titan-MS under the same task force. In the Titan release the company said it delivered 118 Titan 4 systems and 400 Titan-SV systems worldwide during the quarter and that Titan is operationally deployed in 17 countries, with three new international customers fielding it in the quarter.

June 29, 2026 — fiscal 2026 results and fiscal 2027 guidance

Fourth quarter revenue of $641.6 million, up 133%, and full-year revenue of $1,976.8 million, up 141%. Bookings of $2.7 billion and a book-to-bill ratio of 1.4 for the year. Funded backlog of $1.2 billion. Fourth quarter net income of $63.2 million, or $1.25 per diluted share, against a full-year net loss of $265.1 million. Fiscal 2027 guidance introduced.

June 29, 2026 — Form 10-K discloses two material weaknesses

Management concluded that disclosure controls and procedures were not effective as of April 30, 2026. One material weakness relates to information technology general controls at BlueHalo, specifically user access controls and segregation of duties. The second relates to the design of controls over the preparation and review of the goodwill impairment analysis, and is the origin of the third-quarter restatement. Management stated that the financial statements nonetheless present fairly in all material respects, and Deloitte & Touche LLP audited internal control over financial reporting.

June 25, 2026 — William J. Lynn III joins the board

On June 24 the board appointed William J. Lynn III as a Class I director effective immediately and reduced the authorized board size from ten to nine.

June 22, 2026 — restatement of the third quarter and two board resignations

The audit committee determined on June 17 that the unaudited financial statements for the three and nine months ended January 31, 2026 should no longer be relied upon. The error was in the carrying value used in the goodwill impairment analysis of the Space reporting unit, which had not included an allocation of goodwill arising from acquired deferred tax assets and liabilities. Loss from operations was understated by $89.4 million and net loss by $87.3 million for both the three and nine month periods, worth $1.75 per share in the quarter. The error was non-cash and did not affect revenue, current assets, current liabilities, cash used in operating activities, adjusted EBITDA or non-GAAP earnings per share. Separately, directors David Wodlinger and Henry Albers, both designees of Arlington Capital Partners, resigned effective June 17.

May 12, 2026 — $43 million PANTHER contract

The Department of War Test Resource Management Center awarded a three-year, $43 million contract to integrate the PANTHER phased array antenna system on SkyRange platforms for hypersonic telemetry.

May 4, 2026 — Switchblade 400 selected for the Army’s LASSO program

AeroVironment received a prototype agreement from the U.S. Army under the Low-Altitude Stalking and Strike Ordnance program covering rapid development, delivery and testing of the Switchblade 400. The release also disclosed a recent $186 million delivery order for Switchblade 600 Block 2 and Switchblade 300 Block 20 explosively formed penetrator systems, placed under the Army’s existing five-year, $990 million indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract for Lethal Unmanned Systems awarded in August 2024, and described it as the Army’s first Switchblade order containing an EFP payload.

April 20, 2026 — $14.6 million VAPOR CLE production contract

The Army awarded a $14.6 million production contract for the VAPOR Compact Long Endurance system under the Company-Level Directed Requirement small UAS effort, Tranche 2, supporting the Medium Range Reconnaissance initiative.

April 13 and April 9, 2026 — new chief financial officer and chief operating officer

Sean Woodward, previously chief financial officer of the Autonomous Systems segment and with the company since 2010, was appointed executive vice president and chief financial officer effective May 1, 2026, succeeding Kevin McDonnell. Dr. Robert Smith, previously vice president of Radio Frequency Solutions at Raytheon, was appointed executive vice president and chief operating officer effective April 13, 2026, succeeding Brad Truesdell.

March 16, 2026 — Empirical Systems Aerospace acquired

AeroVironment closed the acquisition of ESAero for an aggregate purchase price of $177.9 million, comprising 671,078 shares valued at $142.2 million using the March 16 closing price of $211.88, $26.9 million of cash net of cash acquired, and an $8.8 million holdback. The deal added $110.2 million of goodwill and $55.3 million of intangibles and sits inside the Autonomous Systems segment.

March 10, 2026 — the SCAR termination for convenience

During negotiations, the U.S. government informed AeroVironment that it intended to proceed with a termination for convenience of the Other Transaction Agreement covering delivery of BADGER phased array antenna systems for the Satellite Communication Augmentation Resource program, while allowing the company to compete for future SCAR work. This was the trigger for the Space reporting unit impairment. The company said it intends to keep investing in BADGER and develop a commercial phased-array product.

May 1, 2025 — BlueHalo closes

Merger consideration of $3,528.8 million, or $3,484.9 million net of $43.8 million of cash acquired, made up of $2,640.4 million of equity consideration (17,425,849 shares valued at the April 30, 2025 close of $151.52), $863.2 million to settle BlueHalo debt and $25.2 million of BlueHalo transaction expenses. The purchase price allocation booked $2,367.4 million of goodwill and $1,029.8 million of intangibles, split between backlog of $49.9 million with a one to two year life, customer relationships of $499.5 million over four to nine years and developed technology of $480.4 million over four to ten years.

04-bis Verified developments August 27-31, 2026: the NASA SkyFall award

On August 27, 2026 AeroVironment announced that its MacCready Works advanced solutions team has been awarded a contract for the co-design and co-manufacture of three Mars helicopters for NASA’s SkyFall mission, with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The company describes the effect precisely: it takes the project from a future concept to a formally funded Mars science mission, on a path toward a launch window NASA currently plans for November 2028.

The work is split. AV leads the design and production of rotor systems, airframes, structures, avionics integration and the accommodation for multiple science payloads. JPL leads the power system, electronics, algorithms and software, and supplies the ground-penetrating radar the helicopters will carry to map shallow subsurface ice. Each aircraft also hosts instruments measuring the Martian atmosphere and dust particle transport.

Two things distinguish it from Ingenuity, which the same two teams co-developed and which completed 72 flights at Jezero Crater. First, SkyFall is the first mission to fly a team of three instrument-carrying helicopters rather than a single demonstrator. Second, the release describes a new “SkyFall maneuver”: the three aircraft are released directly from the carrier spacecraft into the Martian atmosphere, then separate, deploy, descend and land under their own power, which removes the need for a single-use lander stage or a host rover of the kind Ingenuity needed with Perseverance.

Separately, on the same day AV announced that chairman, president and chief executive Wahid Nawabi and the executive vice president will present at the 2026 Jefferies Global Industrials Conference in New York. That is a calendar item rather than a business fact, and it is recorded here only so the August 27 pair is complete.

04-ter Verified developments September 2, 2026: the E-HEL production contract

On September 2, 2026 AeroVironment announced it had been awarded $464.8 million by the U.S. Army Portfolio Acquisition Executive for Fires (PAE Fires) program office for the Enduring-High Energy Laser (E-HEL) program. The company states this is the first-ever production contract for directed-energy systems in United States history, marking the transition of the LOCUST line from prototype to fielded production.

The award is structured as an Other Transaction Agreement (OTA), not a firm-fixed-price contract, and covers the delivery of dozens of LOCUST X3 laser weapon systems over the next few years against multi-year fielding requirements, plus ongoing system support and training. LOCUST X3 is a 30-kilowatt, platform-agnostic system that AV says will be integrated with the Army’s Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV), with palletized configuration options and an Infantry Squad Vehicle (ISV) integration under evaluation. It is aimed at the Army’s layered air-defense mission against group 1-3 unmanned aircraft systems.

The E-HEL program builds on the Army Multi-Purpose High Energy Laser (AMP-HEL) prototypes already fielded, and follows LOCUST testing at White Sands Missile Range led by Joint Interagency Task Force 401 (JIATF-401) and PAE Fires, which the company says directly enabled a Department of War–FAA safety agreement covering domestic counter-drone use of lasers. Production ramp-up will draw on the $30 million investment in AV’s Albuquerque, New Mexico facility announced in March 2026.

Chairman, president and chief executive Wahid Nawabi called it “a defining moment not only for AV, but for the future of modern defense,” and John Garrity, vice president of directed energy systems, said E-HEL “is not a future capability, it is a production-ready system.” No SEC filing carries the award as of this update; the source is the company’s own September 2, 2026 press release.

05 The numbers behind the transformation

Historical reference: figures and charts in this section retain their original dates. Current quarterly results and guidance are in sections 01, 07 and 08.

Six charts, all built from figures published by AeroVironment itself in its quarterly earnings releases and its fiscal 2026 Form 10-K. Each caption names the document the numbers came from.

Fiscal 2026 revenue by quarter (US$ millions)

Source: AeroVironment quarterly earnings releases furnished on Form 8-K on September 9 and December 9, 2025 and March 10 and June 29, 2026. The four quarters sum to the reported full-year figure of $1,976.8 million. The third quarter dip is the quarter management attributed to revenue timing and adjustments in the Space business.

Annual revenue and the fiscal 2027 guidance midpoint (US$ millions)

Source: fiscal 2026 Form 10-K for the three actual years and the June 29, 2026 earnings release for guidance of $2.125 billion to $2.225 billion. The guidance midpoint implies growth of about 10.0% on fiscal 2026, a range of 7.5% to 12.6%, against 141% in fiscal 2026 and 14% in fiscal 2025.

Fiscal 2026 revenue by operating group (US$ millions)

Source: revenue disaggregation table in the fiscal 2026 Form 10-K. Shares of the $1,976.8 million total are 42.9%, 18.4%, 17.5%, 13.8% and 7.4%. Cyber and Mission Solutions and Space and Directed Energy did not exist inside AeroVironment before BlueHalo; both showed zero revenue in fiscal 2025 and fiscal 2024. Precision Strike and Defense Systems, which contains the Switchblade family and the Titan counter-UAS line, has gone from $192.6 million in fiscal 2024 to $359.4 million in fiscal 2025 to $848.3 million.

Funded and unfunded backlog at fiscal year end (US$ millions)

Source: fiscal 2026 Form 10-K. Combined backlog rose from $1,501.2 million to $2,640.7 million, an increase of 75.9%, which the company attributes primarily to BlueHalo. The 10-K states that approximately 85% of backlog is expected to be recognized as revenue during fiscal 2027, which on the funded figure alone works out at roughly $1,006 million, or about 46% of the guidance midpoint. Unfunded backlog explicitly excludes unfunded ceiling amounts on sole-source and multi-award IDIQ contracts.

Shares outstanding through the acquisition year (millions)

Source: fiscal 2026 Form 10-K balance sheet and business combination notes. Shares issued and outstanding went from 28,267,517 to 50,610,514, an increase of 79.0% in twelve months. The build is 17,425,849 shares for BlueHalo, 4,057,460 in the July 2025 public offering at $248.00 per share, 671,078 for ESAero and about 188,600 from equity awards and the employee stock purchase plan.

Purchase accounting charged to cost of sales, by quarter of fiscal 2026 (US$ millions)

Source: the four fiscal 2026 quarterly earnings releases. The quarters sum to $92.7 million, which reconciles to the $81.2 million of product cost of sales plus $11.5 million of contract services cost of sales disclosed as intangible amortization and other purchase accounting in the fiscal 2026 Form 10-K. The front-loading is the short-lived acquired backlog intangible, valued at $49.9 million with a one to two year life, amortizing away. Reported gross margin by quarter was 20.9%, 22.0%, 24.2% and 31.6%, against 38.8% for the whole of fiscal 2025.

06 Business overview: two segments, five operating groups

Effective May 1, 2025, in connection with the BlueHalo acquisition, AeroVironment reports in two segments. It describes itself as a defense technology provider delivering integrated capabilities across air, land, sea, space and cyber.

Autonomous Systems (AxS)

Fiscal 2026 revenue of $1,358.1 million, 68.7% of the group, with segment adjusted EBITDA of $288.7 million, a 21.3% margin. AxS contains three of the five operating groups.

• Uncrewed Aircraft Systems. Small systems in Groups 1 and 2 including Puma LE, Puma 3 AE, Puma VTOL, P550, Raven B and VAPOR 55 CLE; medium Group 3 systems including JUMP 20, JUMP 20-X and T-20; and AV_Halo, the hardware-agnostic command-and-control software stack that incorporates Kinesis. Fiscal 2026 revenue of $363.9 million, which is below the $407.7 million this group generated in fiscal 2024.
• Precision Strike and Defensive Systems. The Switchblade family of loitering munitions in 300, 400 and 600 variants, the Blackwing ISR round, the Red Dragon one-way attack family and the newly launched Mayhem 10 launched-effects system. It also holds integrated air and missile defense, which is where the Titan counter-UAS line sits, including Titan 4, Titan SV and the multi-sensor Titan-MS, plus the Freedom Eagle FE-1 kinetic interceptor, and the electronic warfare products built to SOSA and MOSA standards. Fiscal 2026 revenue of $848.3 million.
• Other. MacCready Works, the advanced concepts organization that produced Red Dragon and the DARPA WildCat Group 3 VTOL aircraft; uncrewed maritime systems including Mission Specialist Defender, Mission Specialist Wraith, Pro 5 and Ally; and uncrewed ground vehicles for explosive ordnance disposal including tEODor EVO, Telemax EVO and the new backpackable TOM 50 RE. Fiscal 2026 revenue of $145.9 million.

Space, Cyber and Directed Energy (SCDE)

Fiscal 2026 revenue of $618.8 million, 31.3% of the group, with segment adjusted EBITDA of negative $2.6 million. This is essentially the BlueHalo business, and it did not exist inside AeroVironment before May 1, 2025.

• Space and Directed Energy. Digital beamforming through the multi-band software defined antenna tile, which underpins the BADGER and WASP products; laser communications; space-qualified hardware with more than 260 systems in orbit across low, medium, geostationary and cislunar orbits; the PANTHER phased array family for hypersonic telemetry and tracking; and the LOCUST laser weapon system, where LOCUST X2 covers a 20 to 25 kilowatt range and LOCUST X3 is a third-generation 20 to 35-plus kilowatt system aimed at Group 1 to 3 drones. Fiscal 2026 revenue of $273.4 million.
• Cyber and Mission Solutions. Offensive and defensive cyber, geospatial, signals, measurement and open-source intelligence analytics, and engineering and research services for defense, intelligence and national security customers. Fiscal 2026 revenue of $345.4 million, which makes it larger than the space and directed energy business it is grouped with.

A structural change lands in the numbers investors will see this fiscal year. The 10-K states that effective May 1, 2026 the Autonomous Research and Development business moves into the SCDE segment. Segment revenue and segment adjusted EBITDA for fiscal 2027 will therefore not be directly comparable to the fiscal 2026 splits above without a restated base.

Two shifts in that table matter more than the headline growth. First, the customer base has become far more American: sales to non-U.S. customers were 28% of revenue in fiscal 2026 against 52% in fiscal 2025 and 62% in fiscal 2024. Second, the contract mix has moved toward cost-reimbursable and time-and-materials work, which now accounts for 30% of revenue against 9% a year earlier. Cost-plus work carries lower risk and correspondingly lower margins, which is part of why the blended gross margin fell even as revenue more than doubled. The U.S. Army alone was approximately 25% of fiscal 2026 revenue, other U.S. government agencies and government subcontractors 47%, and the Department of Defense in total about 63%.

On Ukraine, the 10-K gives explicit figures for the two prior years and none for fiscal 2026: Ukraine represented $149.6 million, or 18% of consolidated revenue, in fiscal 2025 and $274.1 million, or 38%, in fiscal 2024. The absence of a fiscal 2026 figure, alongside international revenue falling to 28% of a much larger total, indicates that the Ukraine concentration that once defined the revenue line has been diluted rather than replaced. The 10-K also notes that a decrease in international sales to Ukraine reduced uncrewed systems product deliveries by $62.1 million in fiscal 2025.

07 Financial position and cash conversion at August 1, 2026

Cash plus short-term investments totaled $580.2 million, down from $632.3 million. A further $94.8 million was classified as long-term investments and is excluded from that liquidity subtotal. Debt carrying value is not the same as the $747.5 million contractual principal of the convertible notes.

Operating cash flow of $13.5 million improved substantially, but property and equipment purchases of $44.0 million plus capitalized software of $5.4 million exceeded it. Subtracting those two investment lines gives approximately negative $36.0 million; this is our calculation, not a company-defined free-cash-flow measure. Receivables collections helped cash flow while unbilled receivables and inventories continued to absorb cash.

Form 8-K · September 9, 2026 · Company results release

08 FY2027 guidance and capital structure

September 9 outlook: revenue, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EPS ranges remain unchanged. Use the newly published GAAP ranges below rather than the June guidance. All are forward-looking company estimates.

The EPS bridge is $2.70 of acquired-intangible amortization and purchase accounting, plus $0.15 of acquisition expenses, less $0.04 of investment activity: a $2.81 per-share difference between GAAP and adjusted guidance. The quarterly release presents FY2026 adjusted EBITDA rounded to $287 million in its outlook reconciliation; older annual reporting figures below retain their original source and date.

Form 8-K · September 9, 2026 · Company results release

Fiscal 2030 targets

At the July 8, 2026 investor day, management introduced targets for the fiscal year ending April 30, 2030: revenue of $3.5 billion to $4.0 billion described as a 15% to 20% organic compound annual growth rate, research and development at 7% to 9% of revenue, and adjusted EBITDA margins of 18% to 20%. Set against fiscal 2027 guidance of about 14.5% adjusted EBITDA margin, the target implies roughly 400 basis points of margin expansion over three subsequent years, at the same time as research and development spending rises as a share of revenue. Fiscal 2026 research and development was $127.7 million, or 6.5% of revenue.

The capital structure

• Convertible notes. $747.5 million principal of 0% convertible senior notes due July 15, 2030, carried at $729.0 million net of issuance costs. They pay no regular interest and do not accrete. The initial conversion rate is 3.1017 shares per $1,000 principal, an initial conversion price of approximately $322.40 per share, which is roughly double the current price. All conversions must be settled in cash at least up to principal. The company may redeem at par on or after July 21, 2028 if the stock exceeds 130% of the conversion price for specified periods.
• Term loan repaid. The $700.0 million term loan drawn to fund BlueHalo was repaid in full and closed during fiscal 2026, using approximately $965.3 million of the combined proceeds from the July 2025 equity offering and note issue to clear the term loan and the revolver. The revolving facility remains available and undrawn at year end. Covenants include a maximum consolidated leverage ratio and a minimum fixed charge coverage ratio.
• Equity issuance. The July 2025 offering sold 4,057,460 shares at $248.00. Combined net proceeds from the equity and note offerings were approximately $1.70 billion.
• No dividend. The company has never paid a cash dividend on its common stock and does not anticipate doing so.

The dilution is best read on a per-share basis rather than as a headline. Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share were $3.31 in fiscal 2026 against $3.28 in fiscal 2025, essentially unchanged, while weighted-average diluted shares rose from 28,173,488 to 49,087,346. Adjusted EBITDA nearly doubled; the per-share result did not move.

09 Contract ceilings, funded orders and booked backlog: how to tell them apart

Only $1,696,597 was obligated at award, for two initial task orders whose combined ceiling is $20,178,910. The three figures have different meanings: the overall contract limit, the two-order limit and funds actually obligated. Neither ceiling equals revenue or fully funded backlog. The notice expects work to finish by August 29, 2031. This is a contract-performance horizon, not a guaranteed revenue-recognition schedule or a near-term binary catalyst. Reference: FA9453-26-D-X006; initial orders X013 and X014.

Defense announcements use several different kinds of number, and they are not interchangeable. AeroVironment’s own 10-K sets out the definitions, and they are stricter than most headlines suggest.

• Funded backlog means remaining performance obligations under firm orders for which funding is currently appropriated. This is the $1,183.0 million figure. It is the only one that meets the definition of a performance obligation under ASC 606.
• Unfunded backlog means the total remaining value of awarded contracts with incremental funding yet to be received. This is the $1,457.7 million figure. The company states plainly that it “does not obligate the customer to purchase goods or services” and that there “can be no assurance that unfunded backlog will result in any orders in any particular period, or at all.”
• Contract ceilings on sole-source or multi-award indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity vehicles are excluded from both. The 10-K says so explicitly. A $500 million IDIQ ceiling does not appear anywhere in the $2.64 billion of combined backlog until orders are actually placed against it.
• All U.S. government contracts in backlog, funded or not, may be terminated at the convenience of the government.

Counter-UAS and homeland defense

The counter-UAS opportunity is the clearest new demand signal in AeroVironment’s 2026 announcements, and it is domestic rather than expeditionary. In its own July 6 release the company cited a Department of War statement from April that JIATF-401 has committed more than $600 million at a record pace to strengthen counter-unmanned aircraft systems capabilities in support of Operation Epic Fury and homeland defense. AeroVironment’s Titan release cited the executive order “Restoring American Airspace Sovereignty” and the SAFER SKIES Act as policy changes enabling broader deployment, said it delivered 118 Titan 4 and 400 Titan-SV systems worldwide during the quarter, and said Titan is operationally deployed in 17 countries with three new international customers in the quarter. The September 8 international LOCUST order adds a separate overseas demand signal exceeding $50 million.

On Golden Dome specifically: the phrase does not appear anywhere in AeroVironment’s fiscal 2026 Form 10-K, and the company has not announced an award, a value or a role tied to it. Any exposure to that initiative is therefore undisclosed. What is disclosed and dated is the JIATF-401 relationship, the LOCUST directed energy line including the April 2026 demonstration aboard USS George H.W. Bush, the Freedom Eagle FE-1 interceptor for which AeroVironment announced a Huntsville facility expansion in May 2026, and the Halo_Shield tile-based counter-UAS product announced in April 2026. Those are the verifiable building blocks; the layered homeland air-defense architecture they might serve is not something the company has quantified. The September 2, 2026 E-HEL award is the clearest of them turning into a dollar figure: it moves the LOCUST directed-energy line from demonstration to a named, funded production contract, detailed in section 04-ter above.

10 The BlueHalo accounting: impairment, restatement and two material weaknesses

The single largest item in the fiscal 2026 income statement is not revenue growth, it is a write-down. AeroVironment recorded a $240.7 million goodwill impairment charge in the Space reporting unit, worth $4.76 per diluted share. The trigger was the SCAR programme: a stop-work order on the Other Transaction Agreement for BADGER phased array antenna systems, followed on March 10, 2026 by the government’s stated intent to terminate for convenience. Management updated the long-term cash flows of the Space reporting unit to reflect the lost revenue plus higher research and development and capital investment needed to commercialize the product.

That charge then produced an accounting error. In preparing the year-end statements the company found that the Space reporting unit carrying value used in the third-quarter impairment analysis had omitted an allocation of goodwill arising from acquired deferred tax assets and liabilities. On June 17, 2026 the audit committee determined that the third-quarter financial statements should no longer be relied upon. The restated figures, filed on Form 10-Q/A on June 22, 2026, increased the reported loss from operations by $89.4 million and net loss by $87.3 million for both the three and nine months ended January 31, 2026. Loss per diluted share for the quarter went from $(3.15) as originally reported to $(4.90) as restated, an understatement of $1.75; for the nine months it went from $(4.94) to $(6.73), an understatement of $1.79. The error was non-cash and did not touch revenue, current assets, current liabilities, operating cash flow, adjusted EBITDA or non-GAAP earnings per share.

Two material weaknesses were then disclosed in the Form 10-K, and management concluded that disclosure controls and procedures were not effective as of April 30, 2026:

• IT general controls at BlueHalo. BlueHalo did not design and maintain effective information technology general controls for certain systems relevant to financial reporting; specifically, user access controls did not ensure appropriate segregation of duties or adequately restrict privileged access. As a result, automated controls and IT-dependent manual controls relying on those applications were deemed ineffective. Remediation includes restricting administrator-level access, periodic user access reviews and formalized change management workflows.
• Goodwill impairment review design. The company did not have a properly designed control requiring preparation and review of a reconciliation of goodwill by reporting unit. It has now implemented a quarterly reconciliation control.

Management’s assessment of internal control over financial reporting excluded BlueHalo and ESAero, which together represented approximately 46% of total assets and 48% of total revenue. The material weakness relating to BlueHalo IT controls was identified despite that exclusion. Management stated that remedial controls must operate for a sufficient period before any conclusion can be drawn, and gave no assurance that further material weaknesses will not arise.

What BlueHalo actually contributed is disclosed separately in the 10-K and is worth stating plainly: revenue of $919.1 million for fiscal 2026 since acquisition, and a loss from operations of $365.5 million, inclusive of $208.5 million of intangible amortization and the $240.7 million goodwill impairment. Excluding those two non-cash items, BlueHalo’s contribution to operating income was approximately $83.7 million on $919.1 million of revenue, a margin of about 9.1%.

11 Management and governance

The executive team turned over substantially in the first half of calendar 2026, with both the chief financial officer and the chief operating officer replaced.

The board has also moved. On June 16, 2026 directors David Wodlinger and Henry Albers, both designees of Arlington Capital Partners under the shareholder’s agreement dated November 18, 2024, notified the company of their resignations effective June 17, leaving eight directors. Both letters stated the decision was not the result of any disagreement with management. Arlington retains the right to designate two successor directors and, as of the June 24 Schedule 13D amendment, had not done so. On June 24 the board appointed William J. Lynn III as a Class I director effective immediately and reduced the authorized board size from ten to nine. On July 23 director Stephen F. Page notified the board that he will retire and not stand for re-election, with his term ending at the start of the 2026 annual meeting anticipated for September 24, 2026.

A separate governance item from the February and March 2026 filings: on February 27, 2026 the compensation committee approved a non-qualified deferred compensation plan effective March 1, 2026, allowing named executive officers to defer up to 75% of base salary and all or part of annual cash bonuses, and non-employee directors to defer board fees and equity grants.

12 Ownership, Short Interest And Retail Sentiment

Historical reference: figures and charts in this section retain their original dates. Current quarterly results and guidance are in sections 01, 07 and 08.

The ownership register is unusual for a company of this size because a private equity firm still holds roughly a quarter of it as a result of the all-stock acquisition.

Two things follow. First, the free float is small relative to the market capitalization: roughly 37.9 million shares out of 50.6 million. That amplifies moves in both directions and helps explain a short interest of just over 10% of float on a company with an $8 billion market capitalization. Second, the Arlington position is an identifiable supply overhang whose eventual disposition is not scheduled in any public filing. The 10-K itself flags the point, noting that as lock-up and other restrictions on consideration shares lapse the company “could experience heightened trading activity that could disrupt the market price.”

Insider selling in July 2026 was small and routine: Form 144 notices covered 1,500 shares for retiring chief financial officer Kevin Patrick McDonnell with an aggregate market value of $286,335, and 400 shares for officer Brian Shackley at $57,388. Several Form 4 filings clustered on July 6 and July 15, dates consistent with scheduled equity award vesting and related tax withholding rather than discretionary sales.

Retail commentary on AeroVironment across social platforms tends to focus on the drone and counter-UAS narrative and on the distance between the current price and the 2025 highs. Those are non-professional opinions expressed by individuals with unknown positions and no disclosure obligations. They are not research, they are not verified, and nothing in them has been used in this page. Every figure here is traceable to a filing or a company release.

The block below is a snapshot of the Stocktwits flow, with its date. These are opinions of retail traders and non-professional investors, not analyst research, and they measure attention and how one-sided positioning has become rather than anything about the business.

13 Valuation against the defense peer group

Historical reference: figures and charts in this section retain their original dates. Current quarterly results and guidance are in sections 01, 07 and 08.

At the August 24 close of $148.20 on 50,610,514 shares, the market capitalization is approximately $7.50 billion. Adding $747.5 million of convertible principal and deducting $377.3 million of cash and $255.0 million of short-term investments gives an enterprise value of approximately $7.62 billion, before the further $81.1 million of long-term investments.

Peer market capitalizations are shares outstanding times the August 24, 2026 close; forward price-to-earnings and price-to-sales ratios are compiled by Finviz Elite and were read on August 25, 2026 and are shown for context only. Forward earnings multiples rest on third-party estimates, not company guidance, and are not comparable across companies with different fiscal years, accounting for acquisitions and definitions of adjusted earnings. This is not a valuation recommendation.

The pattern is straightforward. AeroVironment trades at more than twice the price-to-sales multiple of the large primes and at a forward earnings multiple close to double theirs, but at a discount to Kratos, the other pure-play growth name in the group. The multiple is being paid for growth: management’s fiscal 2030 targets imply revenue roughly doubling from the fiscal 2027 base, whereas the primes in the table have compounded sales in the low single digits over five years. Whether that gap is warranted depends entirely on the delivery of the 18% to 20% adjusted EBITDA margin target, since at the guided 14.5% margin the company earns considerably less on each dollar of revenue than most of the primes do.

14 Catalyst calendar after the results

Form 8-K · September 9, 2026 · Company results release

15 The constructive case after Q1

This award follows the August 1 quarter-end and therefore does not change the historical Q1 FY2027 revenue or $1.5 billion funded-backlog snapshot. It provides a further BlueHalo space-research opportunity, but does not establish a guidance increase, a margin contribution or remediation of internal-control weaknesses. Subsequent task orders, funding and execution are the evidence to monitor.

Quarterly bookings of $0.7 billion produced a 1.4 book-to-bill ratio. Funded backlog reached $1.5 billion, up 37% year over year. Operating cash flow turned positive at $13.5 million. Subsequent LOCUST awards add demand visibility, while FY2027 revenue and adjusted profit ranges remain intact.

Autonomous Systems remains profitable and is growing. The September LOCUST announcements broaden the demand pipeline after quarter-end. A sustained improvement in cash conversion, combined with recovery in SCDE, would provide stronger support for the existing full-year ranges. Backlog must convert into delivered systems, recognized revenue and cash collections.

16 The risks after Q1

Only $1,696,597 was obligated at award, for two initial task orders whose combined ceiling is $20,178,910. The three figures have different meanings: the overall contract limit, the two-order limit and funds actually obligated. Neither ceiling equals revenue or fully funded backlog.

Adjusted EBITDA fell to $53.4 million from $56.6 million despite revenue growth. SCDE lost $8.9 million at the segment adjusted EBITDA level. Unbilled receivables rose to $637.8 million and inventories to $410.8 million. Operating cash flow did not cover capital expenditure; the earlier disclosed accounting-control weaknesses are not established as remediated by this release.

Quarterly gross margin improved year over year but was below the 31.6% reported in Q4 FY2026. The comparison is affected by seasonality and acquisition accounting. Goodwill remains approximately $2.494 billion. Government procurement, contract termination, execution costs and the previously disclosed control weaknesses remain material considerations; the results release alone does not establish that the weaknesses have been remediated.

17 Scenarios: what the next filings must demonstrate

These are analytical scenarios, not price targets or forecasts.

18 Assessment after Q1 results and the September 11 contract notice

The September 11, 2026 U.S. government contract notice awards Blue Halo LLC a $99,832,117 IDIQ ceiling for space-systems research under the Leveraged Orbital Battlespace Optimization program. The news was recirculated September 14; September 11 is the official announcement date. This award follows the August 1 quarter-end and therefore does not change the historical Q1 FY2027 revenue or $1.5 billion funded-backlog snapshot. It provides a further BlueHalo space-research opportunity, but does not establish a guidance increase, a margin contribution or remediation of internal-control weaknesses. Subsequent task orders, funding and execution are the evidence to monitor.

The quarter gives a mixed answer: record first-quarter revenue and funded backlog, improved adjusted EPS and positive operating cash flow, alongside weaker adjusted EBITDA and negative SCDE adjusted EBITDA. Maintained revenue and adjusted-profit guidance supports continuity, but it does not resolve the margin and investment-funding questions.

The next operating evidence is delivery and cash conversion. The September 2 and September 8 LOCUST awards belong to the subsequent period, not the August 1 financial snapshot. Market and ownership tables retained below or elsewhere in this Hub are historical snapshots with their own dates and do not describe the post-results trading reaction.

Form 8-K · September 9, 2026 · Company results release

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