Vanilla Unmanned

What Vanilla Unmanned does

Vanilla Unmanned is the product brand of Platform Aerospace, a privately-held U.S. aerospace company headquartered at 43960 Airport View Dr., Hollywood, Maryland. Platform Aerospace designs, builds, and operates the Vanilla Ultra-Long Endurance Group 3 unmanned aircraft system (UAS), selling primarily to U.S. defense and national security customers (notably the U.S. Air Force) for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), communications relay, signals intelligence (SIGINT), electronic warfare (EW), and air-launched effects (ALE) missions, with a secondary commercial environmental monitoring segment. Go-to-market is enterprise field sales via direct government procurement, with no commercial retail channel.

The Vanilla airframe is built around an internal combustion engine propulsion system that delivers in-house-tested endurance exceeding 8 days — verified by an FAI-certified world record of 8 days and 50 minutes set 24 Sep – 02 Oct 2021 — at approximately 15,000 miles of range, a 70-knot dash and 45–55-knot loiter envelope, and a 15,000-foot maximum ceiling (typical operating altitude 5K–10K ft). Its modular, open payload architecture is compliant with the Mod Payload Standard and supports up to 150 lbs (68 kg) and 500 W of payload across 7 installation points; the company reports more than 40 integrated payloads to-date across ISR, comms relay, SIGINT, EW, and ALE mission profiles. Operations are supported by waypoint-guided autonomous flight, line-of-sight and beyond-line-of-sight (LOS/BLOS) communications, and a runway-independent truck-based launch system.

Platform Aerospace monetizes the platform primarily through direct hardware sales to government and defense customers under a quote-based procurement model, with deployment options spanning Government-Owned/Government-Operated (GO/GO), Government-Owned/Contractor-Operated (GO/CO), and Contractor-Owned/Contractor-Operated (CO/CO) configurations. The company positions Vanilla's procurement cost as "drastically below" the USAF's attritable UAS threshold. Platform Aerospace is ISO 9001 certified, has been recognized on Fortune's Best Places to Work (#5 in 2024) and Fortune's Best Workplaces in Manufacturing & Production (#5 in 2025). The company does not publicly disclose revenue, funding rounds, ownership structure, or specific customer contracts; the legal entity is Platform Aerospace, with the product marketed under the DBAs "Vanilla" and "Vanilla UAS."

Name

Vanilla Unmanned

Legal name

Platform Aerospace

Website

https://vanillaunmanned.com

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Vanilla Unmanned, a product brand of Platform Aerospace, designs and manufactures the Vanilla Ultra-Long Endurance Group 3 UAS, an internal-combustion-powered unmanned aircraft offering more than 8 days of flight and 150 lbs of payload for U.S. defense ISR, comms relay, SIGINT, EW, and air-launched effects missions.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Unmanned Aircraft Systems

NAICS

Aircraft Manufacturing (336411), Aerospace Product and Parts Manufacturing (3364)

SIC

Aircraft (3721), Aircraft & Parts (3720)

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYIMABAMAC

Military Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) & Autonomous Aerial Platforms

Industrials, Manufacturing & Construction/Aerospace & Defense Manufacturing/Military Aerospace Manufacturing

SECONDARYIMABAIAB

Fixed-Wing Unmanned Aircraft (UAV)

Industrials, Manufacturing & Construction/Aerospace & Defense Manufacturing/Unmanned Aerial Systems (Drones) & Autonomous Platforms

SECONDARYIMABAIAO

UAS Integration, Certification & Compliance Systems (Remote ID, Detect-and-Avoid)

Industrials, Manufacturing & Construction/Aerospace & Defense Manufacturing/Unmanned Aerial Systems (Drones) & Autonomous Platforms

Keywords

• Defense unmanned aircraft
• Long endurance UAS
• ISR platforms
• Electronic warfare drones
• Attritable aerospace systems

Headquarters

HQ city

Hollywood

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Supply Chain, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. UAS Hardware Sales: Sale of Vanilla UAS aircraft and systems to defense and government customers. One-time procurement with deployment options including GO/GO, GO/CO, and CO/CO configurations.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Vanilla Unmanned (a product line of Platform Aerospace) manufactures and sells the Vanilla Ultra-Long Endurance Group 3 unmanned aircraft system (UAS), a fixed-wing aircraft powered by an internal combustion engine that delivers over 8 days of un-refueled flight, ~15,000 miles of range, up to 150 lbs payload capacity, and modular/open architecture supporting more than 40 integrated payloads (ISR, communications relay, SIGINT, electronic warfare, air launched effects). The system features runway-independent truck launch, waypoint-guided autonomous flight, and LOS/BLOS communications, and is sold via quote-based procurement to defense and national security customers at costs drastically below the USAF's attritable threshold.

Product overview

Vanilla Unmanned (a product line of Platform Aerospace) offers a single core product: the Vanilla Ultra-Long Endurance Group 3 UAS. This platform delivers over 8 days of endurance, approximately 15,000 miles range, and supports payloads up to 150lbs with 500 watts of power across 7 installation points. The system operates at altitudes up to 15,000 ft (typically 5K-10K ft) with waypoint-guided autonomous flight capability and runway-independent truck launch. The product features an open/modular architecture compliant with Mod Payload Standard, supporting over 40 integrated payloads and multi-mission operations on a single flight with both LOS/BLOS communications options.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Vanilla Ultra-Long Endurance Group 3 UAS: Ultra-long endurance unmanned aircraft system with >8 days endurance, ~15,000 miles range, up to 150lbs payload capacity, designed for ISR, communications relay, SIGINT, electronic warfare, and air launched effects missions.

Products and services

• Vanilla Ultra-Long Endurance Group 3 UAS Ultra-long endurance Group 3 unmanned aircraft system delivering more than 8 days of continuous flight, approximately 15,000 miles of range, up to 150 lbs (68 kg) payload capacity across 7 installation points, 500 watts of payload power, runway-independent truck launch, waypoint-guided autonomous flight, and LOS/BLOS communications. Targets defense, national security, and commercial environmental missions including ISR, communications relay, SIGINT, electronic warfare, and air launched effects; available in GO/GO, GO/CO, and CO/CO deployment configurations.

Quantifiable outcome

• 8 days and 50 minutes un-refueled endurance flight (world record)
• +2 more outcomes

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Emerging players

• Shield AI: Defense autonomy company building Hivemind software and V-BAT VTOL UAS. Comparable as a venture-backed defense UAS competitor pursuing autonomous, expeditionary ISR for the DoD.
• Anduril Industries: Well-capitalized defense technology company developing autonomous UAS (Roadrunner, Bolt, Ghost) for ISR and effects missions. Directly comparable as a tech-forward, attritable UAS competitor pursuing long-endurance and expeditionary concepts for the DoD.
• Performance Drone Works (PDW): Emerging US defense UAS manufacturer building small tactical platforms for Army and special operations forces. Comparable as a smaller-scale, focused defense UAS competitor pursuing attritable ISR and lethality missions.

Broad incumbents

• Insitu (Boeing): Subsidiary of Boeing producing ScanEagle and Integrator tactical UAS for defense and commercial customers. Comparable as an established tactical UAS supplier competing for the same expeditionary ISR procurement dollars.
• Textron Systems: Manufactures the Shadow tactical UAS and other defense aerospace platforms. Comparable as an established defense prime in the tactical UAS segment competing for similar DoD ISR and training contracts.
• General Atomics Aeronautical Systems: Incumbent manufacturer of long-endurance military UAS including MQ-9 Reaper and MQ-20 Avenger. Comparable as the dominant US long-endurance UAS prime whose procurement share Vanilla is positioned to contest.
• Northrop Grumman: Aerospace prime producing Global Hawk and Triton high-altitude long-endurance UAS. Comparable as the established HALE incumbent whose exquisite platforms are the budgetary counterpoint to Vanilla's attritable positioning.

Direct peers

• Edge Autonomy: Producer of long-endurance Group 2/3 UAS (Penguin C, Stalker) for ISR and survey missions. Comparable as a direct competitor in the small-to-medium long-endurance UAS segment for defense and commercial customers.
• Kratos Defense & Security Solutions: Manufactures high-performance, attritable UAS including the MQM-178 Firejet and XQ-58 Valkyrie. Comparable as a focused provider of cost-effective, jet-powered and tactical UAS for DoD training and combat missions.
• AeroVironment: Manufactures small tactical UAS including Switchblade loitering munitions, Puma, and JUMP. Comparable as a focused tactical UAS specialist serving DoD ISR and effects missions with attritable platforms.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCltr9ig-WSa_ZEyGnByrs_g
• Facebookfacebook.com/platformaerospace
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/vanilla-unmanned
• Instagraminstagram.com/platformaerospace

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Vanilla Unmanned