Performance Drone Works (PDW) opened Drone Factory 01 in Huntsville, Alabama on August 21, 2025, a 90,000-square-foot facility located near Redstone Arsenal. The plant consolidates design, manufacturing, flight test, and delivery under one roof and is rated to produce 350 C100 multi-mission UAS and 5,000 AM-FPV attritable munitions per month. PDW said the facility will introduce over 500 new jobs in the greater Huntsville area and generate more than $81 million per year in economic impact.
What it means
Drone Factory 01 gives PDW dedicated domestic production capacity for two systems it is supplying under U.S. Army contracts: the Medium Range Reconnaissance program and the Transformation in Contact Initiative. The C100 is also used for public safety operations. By housing all functions from design through delivery at a single address near Redstone Arsenal, PDW said it gains the scale and control needed to deliver mission-critical systems at pace. CEO Ryan Gury said in the release: “This facility gives us the scale, speed, and control needed to deliver mission-critical systems ahead of the threat.”
The facility also incorporates Lit Thinking’s Visium Far-UVC devices, which PDW said achieve 99.9% pathogen reduction in the production environment. COO and President James Slider described Huntsville as the company’s operational edge: “The innovation coming out of this city is reshaping the pace of defense manufacturing.”
Key facts
- Facility: Drone Factory 01, Huntsville, Alabama, near Redstone Arsenal
- Size: 90,000 sq ft
- C100 multi-mission UAS production capacity: 350 units per month (according to the company)
- AM-FPV attritable munition production capacity: 5,000 units per month (according to the company)
- Jobs: over 500 new positions in the greater Huntsville area (according to the company)
- Projected economic impact: over $81 million per year (according to the company)
- Army contracts held: Medium Range Reconnaissance program, Transformation in Contact Initiative
- Air quality system: Lit Thinking Visium Far-UVC devices, 99.9% pathogen reduction
- Parent company: PDW Holdings, Inc.
Source: Performance Drone Works news release (PR Newswire)