AV's medium UAS JUMP 20 supports the US Navy's 4th Fleet during Operation Southern Spear
ARLINGTON, Virginia, June 12, 2025 - AeroVironment, Inc. ("AV") (NASDAQ: AVAV) provided company-owned and -operated (COCO) maritime intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) services in support of the U.S. Navy's 4th Fleet as part of Operation Southern Spear. AV's JUMP® 20 medium-weight unmanned aircraft system was deployed in the Caribbean and Southern Atlantic, where it provided continuous ISR reconnaissance, actively pursuing potential illicit activity within the 4th Fleet's jurisdiction.
JUMP 20 is a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) MUAS designed for rapid deployment, with fully hands-free autonomous take-off and landing capabilities on moving vessels - even in challenging maritime conditions, including sea state 5 and wind speeds in excess of 20 knots.
"The continued development and refinement of the JUMP 20 maritime offering has been a key focus and investment for AV over the past 18 months," said Shane Hastings, vice president and general manager of medium UAS at AV. "This contract represents the culmination of that work and marks the first of hopefully many operational maritime deployments of the JUMP 20. What sets the JUMP 20 apart from other Group 3 UAS in its class is its superior payload capacity, unmatched modularity and exceptional endurance - all delivered without launch or recovery equipment, allowing for fully hands-free operations and maximum operational safety."
According to the Navy, "Operation Southern Spear was a successful operation to further the Navy's hybrid fleet campaign and operationalize robotic and autonomous systems (RAS) by manned and unmanned teams. In addition to accomplishing operational objectives, this operation led from short-term experiments to long-term deployments that supported the development of critical techniques and procedures to promote the global integration of RAS into the maritime environment. AV's JUMP 20 served as a key ISR asset and operated alongside joint and interagency systems in the area."
JUMP 20 has proven its reliability in over 130,000 land-based flight hours in combat operations for U.S. Special Operations Command. Expanding JUMP 20's missions to these shipboard environments further extends its reach and enables multi-mission, multi-domain capabilities on a global scale wherever and whenever they are needed.
AV's JUMP 20 was ship-based and deployed for approximately six months during Operation Southern Spear under the Surveillance, Analysis, Reconnaissance, Logistics, Intelligence and Network Services (MARLINS) contract as a subcontractor to the prime contractor, SMX.
