Swarm Defense Technologies has secured a prototype delivery order for 4,000 Kiwi one-way attack drones and additional munitions, with the contract valued at a minimum of $25 million. The award follows the second phase of the Pentagon’s Drone Dominance Program, known as Gauntlet 2, where military personnel assessed Kiwi systems in realistic operational scenarios. The order represents a substantial procurement quantity for a relatively small unmanned attack system and follows the company’s participation in a government-led evaluation environment. The package also includes Strike Deck, Swarm Defense Technologies’ ground-control software. The company says the system allows a single operator to control dozens of Kiwi drones, supporting coordinated employment of multiple unmanned platforms. The procurement highlights the US military’s continued interest in affordable, scalable unmanned systems that can be deployed in larger numbers. Rather than relying exclusively on a small number of expensive platforms, programs such as Drone Dominance are examining systems that can provide distributed capabilities at greater scale. The Kiwi order therefore combines the physical drone inventory with software intended to support multi-drone operations. The award follows testing rather than being an initial technology demonstration, suggesting that the system has progressed through an evaluation stage toward prototype delivery.
