Kraus Hamdani Aerospace, a producer of ultra-long endurance Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) technology, has announced the award of $20 million through the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DoD) Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies (APFIT) program. This contract marks one of the largest awards since APFIT’s inception in 2022.

The APFIT program, established by the Office of Strategic Capital (OSC), is designed to expedite the transition of innovative technologies into production. APFIT prioritizes fielding essential equipment for the warfighter, with a focus on technologies developed by small businesses and nontraditional defense contractors like Kraus Hamdani Aerospace.

K1000ULE is a next-generation UAS designed for ultra-long endurance missions. The K1000ULE provides the U.S. Army with Aerial Tier Network Extension (ATNE), Electronic Warfare (EW) and Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities for deep sensing and communication extension over large distances.

“Over time, we have matured our technology in line with the requirements of the U.S. Army and continue to align the K1000ULE to meet the needs of the warfighter in a dynamically changing environment. The APFIT award validates our learning from conflict areas across the globe and our alignment to delivering mature technology that gives our warfighter an asymmetric advantage over our adversaries in modern warfare,” said Fatema Hamdani, CEO and Co-founder of Kraus Hamdani Aerospace.

As the U.S. Army sunsets the Shadow UAS Program, the K1000ULE is positioned to provide Group 2 and Group 3 UAS capabilities with a logistics footprint of Group 2 UAS.

“The APFIT award will enable us to rapidly scale manufacturing in order to meet customer demand. In addition, this award furthers our development in high endurance technologies while delivering critical capability to the U.S. Army,” said Stefan Kraus, CTO and Co-founder of Kraus Hamdani Aerospace.