AeroVironment (NASDAQ: AVAV) and Applied Intuition have announced a strategic teaming agreement to integrate Applied Intuition’s Acuity ISR/Strike autonomy software into AV’s Mayhem 10 launched effects system, with the companies pitching the combined offering at the U.S. Army’s Launched Effects program.
Under the agreement, Acuity ISR/Strike will run onboard Mayhem 10 to enable collaborative “find, fix, track, target, and engage” behavior across multiple air vehicles operating as a team, with a single operator retaining oversight of the group. AV and Applied Intuition said they have already completed a multi-site integration effort and validated the collaborative autonomy behaviors in a recent demonstration, with multiple Mayhem 10 systems synchronizing, swarming, and adapting to simulated threats. The integration work was conducted using AV’s Autonomy Interface Control Document, the company’s published interface standard for bringing third-party autonomy onto its platforms.
“Mayhem 10 isn’t just a munition. It’s an architecture,” said Brian Young, senior vice president of loitering munitions at AV. “We built it as an open, modular system from the beginning.”
Jason Brown, general manager of Applied Intuition, said the software “enables intelligent swarms that share targeting data in real time, dynamically adjust to threats, and execute missions that would be impossible for individual platforms.”
Background
AV introduced Mayhem 10 in April 2026 at the Army Aviation Association of America’s Mission Solutions Summit in Nashville, positioning it as the first entry in a new launched effects product line built on the heritage of the company’s Switchblade loitering munitions. The Group 2 system carries a 10-pound modular payload, an operational range of up to 100 kilometers, and roughly 50 minutes of endurance, with assembly and launch readiness specified at under five minutes. AV has described the platform as designed for air, ground, and maritime deployment and built to resist jamming, spoofing, and other electronic warfare threats. Young has called Mayhem 10 a “sister system” to the company’s Switchblade 400, and AV has said it expects to reach low-rate initial production this year.
Mayhem 10’s open architecture was built in partnership with Parry Labs, which developed the system’s modular open systems approach, and AV disclosed at the April rollout that it had also partnered with Applied Intuition on the platform’s collaborative-attack, or swarming, capability. At that time, the companies had not yet tested the swarming functions; Wednesday’s announcement reflects the completion of that integration and demonstration work.
The Army’s Launched Effects program defines short-, medium-, and long-range requirement tiers, with Mayhem 10 positioned against the short-range tier. AV has said Mayhem 10 is designed to accommodate the Javelin Multi-Purpose Warhead, the same munition integrated into the Switchblade 600, and has flagged potential future integration onto ground platforms.
Applied Intuition introduced its Acuity and Axion defense product families in 2025 and has since built out a roster of defense partnerships, including a December 2025 agreement with Sierra Nevada Corporation covering ground autonomy and mission control software. The company, founded in 2017 and valued at $15 billion, describes Acuity ISR/Strike as platform-agnostic software intended to support decentralized autonomous behavior in denied or contested communications environments.
