The program will establish distributed production capacity for adaptable, low-cost UAS airframes
LOS ANGELES, Calif., November 6, 2026 — Machina, a leader in advanced manufacturing and robotics, today announced that it has been selected as part of the Department of War’s Organic Industrial Base Modernization Challenge to develop and qualify a RoboCrafted airframe for a low-cost uncrewed combat attack system (LUCAS)-class unmanned aircraft system (UAS)—a low-cost Class 3 aircraft—and deploy two pilot expeditionary robotic factories, known as Edge Factories, to support production. The program represents the largest single award in Machina’s history and advances the company’s mission to build anything, anywhere by connecting adaptable digital design with deployable manufacturing capacity.
Led by Machina’s dedicated defense subsidiary Machina Bellator, the program will begin at Machina’s Los Angeles facilities with development and qualification of the metal-based airframe. Machina will then deploy two Edge Factories—localized, rapidly deployable production sites—to manufacture airframes closer to the point of need.
Modern conflicts are increasing demand for low-cost systems that can be produced rapidly, adapted to changing mission requirements and fielded at scale. Traditional aerospace manufacturing relies on centralized factories, specialized tooling and long supply chains that can add weeks or months to production and delivery timelines. Built on a Modular Open Systems Approach, Machina’s Edge Factories can produce a family of mission-specific drone designs from a single production cell, enabling drone airframes to be made in a fraction of the time and cost of traditional composite manufacturing.
“Producing low-cost systems at scale requires a manufacturing model that can move as quickly as mission requirements change,” said Ed Mehr, founder and CEO of Machina. “This program brings our ‘build anything, anywhere’ mission to life by connecting adaptable UAS design with flexible production capacity closer to the point of need.”
Each pilot Edge Factory will initially center on a containerized RoboCraftsman™ manufacturing cell supported by Machina forward-deployed engineers, software and complementary production equipment. Powered by Machina’s proprietary RoboForming™ technology, the factories can manufacture metal structures directly from digital geometry without dies or hard tooling and deploy with minimal site preparation.
The program builds on a UAS manufacturing workflow Machina developed with nTop, spanning parametric design, automated engineering analysis, robotic forming and final assembly. Using nTop’s engineering design platform, the teams built a parametric airframe model and ran automated structural and computational fluid dynamics analysis across dozens of design variants, keeping the models ready for simulation and manufacturing throughout. Machina then formed and assembled the metal structures using its RoboCraftsman™ platform. As design parameters changed, Machina translated updated geometry from the nTop model into manufactured metal within days, rather than waiting through new tooling cycles that often take months or longer.
Machina has since used the same approach to manufacture and fly a UAS demonstrator, completing the assembled structure just weeks after final design lock and providing a physical proof point for the adaptable production model underpinning this program. The workflow allows range and other mission requirements to be modified in the parametric model and the resulting airframes to be produced using the same manufacturing system, creating the foundation for a modular, open-architecture family of UAS rather than a production line limited to one design.
About Machina
Machina reinvents metal manufacturing with AI and robotics, constructing intelligent factories capable of rapidly forming and assembling complex metal structures from digital design. The company's RoboCraftsman platform combines advanced robotics, machine learning, and proprietary RoboForming technology to deliver software-defined manufacturing at production scale. Established in 2019 and headquartered in Los Angeles, Machina serves commercial mobility and industrial leaders, while its defense subsidiary, Machina Bellator, serves the U.S. Department of War and defense primes. Visit www.machinalabs.ai for additional information.