WASHINGTON — The Defense Innovation Unit awarded aircraft startup Hermeus an additional $159 million, which the company revealed today will fund work for its Quarterhorse drone to carry and release payloads at high speeds.
The award, which raises the ceiling of the DIU contract to $219 million, will cover flight tests this year and in 2027. In an interview with Breaking Defense, Hermeus CEO Zach Shore said the company is ready to begin work immediately.
“You’re looking at something that’s effectively an unmanned F-16,” Shore said, referring to the company’s Mk 2 Quarterhorse drone. “When we’re done with the series, you’ll have an unmanned F-16 that could hit Mach 3.”
Shore did not disclose the payloads the Quarterhorse would release, which will be mounted externally on hardpoints. The goal, however, is to release those payloads at speeds “up to and including Mach 3.”
Air Force Maj. Gen. Joseph Kunkel, the DIU’s military deputy, expressed strong support for the aircraft. “If we can mass produce this,” Kunkel said in a Hermeus press release, “then it becomes a game-changing warfighting capability, where we use it as a weapon instead of a test platform, and I think we found a significant number of use cases where it can be used as a weapon.”
