Machina wins DoW pick to build LUCAS drone airframes in deployable robotic factories

Machina said on Friday, Nov. 6, 2026, that it was selected under the U.S. Department of War's Organic Industrial Base Modernization Challenge to develop and qualify a RoboCrafted metal airframe for a LUCAS-class (low-cost uncrewed combat attack system) Class 3 unmanned aircraft and to deploy two pilot expeditionary robotic factories, called Edge Factories — the largest single award in Machina's history.

Defense buyers want cheap drones faster than a tooling shop can cut a die. Machina's pitch is a containerized factory that forms metal airframes from the CAD file and moves with the fight — two Edge Factories and a LUCAS-class airframe qualification as the proof point. The award size is "largest ever" for Machina and still dollar-undisclosed, which is the caveat stamped on the win.

Machina said it was selected in the Department of War's Organic Industrial Base Modernization Challenge. The department is named that way in the company's release. The work is to develop and qualify a RoboCrafted metal airframe for a LUCAS-class aircraft. LUCAS, in the release, means a low-cost uncrewed combat attack system. The aircraft is a Class 3 unmanned aircraft system, a UAS, which is the aircraft plus the gear that flies it, with no pilot on board. Machina will also deploy two pilot expeditionary robotic factories, called Edge Factories. Expeditionary means the factory is meant to be moved. The release calls this the largest single award in Machina's history. It does not state the dollar amount. The announcement is datelined Los Angeles, Nov. 6, 2026. Those lines are Machina's.

Machina Bellator, the company's defense subsidiary, leads the program. Work begins at Machina's Los Angeles facilities with development and qualification of the metal airframe. Machina then deploys two Edge Factories to manufacture airframes closer to the point of need. The release announces the selection and that sequence. It does not say the factories are already in the field, and it does not name a delivery date or a unit count. Those lines are Machina's.

Each pilot Edge Factory will initially center on a containerized RoboCraftsman manufacturing cell, with forward-deployed engineers, software, and other production equipment. RoboForming, Machina's own process, can manufacture metal structures directly from the digital geometry, without dies or hard tooling, and the cell is meant to deploy with minimal site preparation. A die is the custom metal mold a traditional shop cuts before it can stamp a part. Skipping that mold is the point of the pitch. Those lines are Machina's.

The factories are built on a Modular Open Systems Approach. In the release, that means one production cell can make a family of mission-specific drone designs, not a single frozen shape. The company says airframes can be made in a fraction of the time and cost of traditional composite manufacturing. It does not give that fraction as a number. Those lines are Machina's.

The program builds on earlier work with nTop, an engineering-design platform. The teams built a parametric airframe model, a shape that can be resized by changing the inputs, and ran automated structural analysis and computational fluid dynamics across dozens of design variants. Computational fluid dynamics is a computer model of how air moves over the shape. Machina then formed and assembled the metal structures on RoboCraftsman. When the geometry changed, the company says updated designs became manufactured metal within days, rather than a new tooling cycle that often takes months. Those lines are Machina's.

Machina says it has since manufactured and flown an unmanned-aircraft demonstrator with the same approach, and finished the assembled structure weeks after the final design was locked. That flight is the company's proof point for the method. It is not a count of LUCAS airframes already delivered under this award.

Ed Mehr, founder and chief executive of Machina, said: "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." That quotation is his.

Machina was established in 2019 and is headquartered in Los Angeles. It serves commercial mobility and industrial customers. Machina Bellator serves the Department of War and defense primes. A prime, here, is a large defense contractor that hires specialists under its own contract. The company site is machinalabs.ai. Those lines are Machina's.

The picture is Machina's RoboCraftsman cell: yellow robotic arms over a metal sheet, with a monitor showing the digital twin of the part, the on-screen model the robot is forming. An American flag hangs in the shop behind the cell. The credit is Machina.

In plain terms, the department the release calls the Department of War picked Machina to qualify a metal airframe for a cheap attack drone and to stand up two container factories that form that metal without cutting a die. Machina calls it the largest award it has ever won and does not say what it pays. The work starts in Los Angeles. The factories are not in the field yet.