U.S Air Force and Archer sign new contracts worth up to $142 Million, includes delivery of up to six Midnight eVTOL aircraft

Archer has sig­nif­i­cant­ly expand­ed its part­ner­ship with the US Depart­ment of Defense, by sign­ing new con­tracts with the U.S. Air Force with a total val­ue of up to $142 mil­lion.

This new exe­cu­tion phase of the part­ner­ship includes the deliv­ery of up to six of Archer’s Mid­night air­craft to the Air Force, the shar­ing of addi­tion­al flight test data and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion relat­ed test reports, pilot train­ing, and the devel­op­ment of main­te­nance and repair oper­a­tions.

The new con­tracts sig­nal the U.S. mil­i­tary’s recog­ni­tion of the trans­for­ma­tive poten­tial Archer’s inno­v­a­tive eVTOL air­craft brings to our country’s Armed Forces. They also rep­re­sent a sig­nif­i­cant invest­ment in the future of the coun­try and will help ensure it main­tains its lead­er­ship posi­tion in avi­a­tion

Adam Gold­stein, Archer’s Founder and CEO, said: “This his­toric agree­ment reflects the stead­fast com­mit­ment by our Armed Forces to embrace the cut­ting-edge tech­nol­o­gy our eVTOL air­craft offer. It’s clear that the devel­op­ment and com­mer­cial­i­sa­tion of eVTOL tech­nol­o­gy con­tin­ues to remain a nation­al pri­or­i­ty.

“We look for­ward to work­ing close­ly with the U.S. Depart­ment of Defense and the U.S. Air Force to inte­grate Mid­night into their oper­a­tional fleet with a focus on trans­port, logis­tics and res­cue
oper­a­tions.”

Archer has been part­ner­ing with the DoD since 2021 on a series of projects through the U.S. Air Force’s AFWERX pro­gram, with the goal of help­ing the AFWERX Agili­ty Prime pro­gram assess the trans­for­ma­tion­al poten­tial of the ver­ti­cal flight mar­ket and eVTOL tech­nolo­gies for DoD pur­pos­es.

Now, with Archer recent­ly com­plet­ing the man­u­fac­tur­ing of its first Mid­night air­craft, the DoD recog­nis­es that with its ver­ti­cal take­off and land­ing capa­bil­i­ties, tar­get pay­load of approx­i­mate­ly 1,000lbs, pro­pri­etary elec­tric pow­er­train sys­tem, and low noise pro­file, Archer’s air­craft rep­re­sents a poten­tial par­a­digm shift in mil­i­tary avi­a­tion and oper­a­tions.

These air­craft hold the promise of enhanc­ing rapid response, agili­ty, and oper­a­tional effec­tive­ness across a wide range of mis­sion pro­files, from per­son­nel trans­port and logis­tics sup­port to res­cue oper­a­tions and more.

Archer’s Mid­night air­craft are expect­ed to pro­vide a much safer and qui­eter alter­na­tive to heli­copters while being more cost-effec­tive for the U.S. mil­i­tary to trans­port, oper­ate and main­tain in the field.

Colonel Tom Meagher, the lead for AFWERX Agili­ty Prime pro­grams, added: “It is our mis­sion to ensure the U.S. con­tin­ues to lead the world in devel­op­ing and deploy­ing emerg­ing aero­space tech­nol­o­gy. eVTOL air­craft rep­re­sent the cusp of the third rev­o­lu­tion in aero­space, and these air­craft and their descen­dents will dri­ve advances in capa­bil­i­ties and effi­cien­cy.

“Our con­tracts with Archer Avi­a­tion pro­vide the U.S. Depart­ment of Defense and U.S. Air Force the oppor­tu­ni­ty to play a role in ensur­ing from the onset, and as the tech­nol­o­gy evolves, that we unlock the many ben­e­fits these air­craft have to offer the U.S. mil­i­tary.”

This announce­ment comes on the heels of Archer announc­ing the for­ma­tion of the company’s Gov­ern­ment Ser­vices Advi­so­ry Board in May. The goal of the advi­so­ry board is to allow Archer to more ful­ly engage with U.S. gov­ern­ment and pub­lic safe­ty agen­cies to explore oppor­tu­ni­ties to com­mer­cialise its eVTOL air­craft.

The mem­bers of this advi­so­ry board are assist­ing and facil­i­tat­ing Archer’s direct engage­ment with appro­pri­ate gov­ern­ment agen­cies and offi­cials to advance both con­sid­er­a­tion and imple­men­ta­tion of Archer’s eVTOL air­craft and relat­ed tech­nolo­gies.

The board includes Retired 4‑star Gen­er­al Steve Townsend, Retired 3‑star Lieu­tenant Gen­er­al David A. Krumm, Retired 3‑star Vice Admi­ral Ron Box­all, Retired 2‑star Gen­er­al Clay­ton M. Hut­mach­er, Retired 2‑star Gen­er­al Bill Gayler, and Retired Chief War­rant Offi­cer 4 Michael J. Durant.

Retired Gen­er­al Townsend said: “As a retired senior mil­i­tary leader who was respon­si­ble for U.S. forces, oper­a­tions and activ­i­ties through­out the con­ti­nent of Africa, I’m thrilled with this agree­ment and its poten­tial impact on the capa­bil­i­ties of our Armed Forces.

“The Unit­ed States has always been at the fore­front of tech­no­log­i­cal inno­va­tion, and this part­ner­ship demon­strates our nation’s com­mit­ment to main­tain that posi­tion. I com­mend the vision­ary lead­er­ship at DoD which led to this con­tract and Archer’s ded­i­ca­tion to push­ing the bound­aries of avi­a­tion tech­nol­o­gy.”

In April 2023, Joby Avi­a­tion announced it too had extend­ed its part­ner­ship with the US DOD, with a $55 mil­lion con­tract valu­ing the com­pa­ny’s deal at $131 mil­lion.

As part of this agree­ment, Joby will deliv­er and oper­ate up to nine of its five-seat, low-noise, zero oper­at­ing emis­sions air­craft, pro­vid­ing the Air Force and oth­er fed­er­al agen­cies with first-hand expe­ri­ence of the per­for­mance of Joby’s air­craft and its poten­tial appli­ca­tions.