Archer Aviation Teams Up With Defense Contractor Anduril

<p><strong>SANTA CLARA &&num;8212&semi; <&sol;strong>Defense company Anduril is partnering with Archer in an exclusive partnership to jointly develop a hybrid Vertical Take Off and Landing &lpar;VTOL&rpar; aircraft for critical defense applications targeting a potential program of record from the Department of Defense &lpar;DOD&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>With Archer’s ability to rapidly develop advanced VTOL aircraft using existing commercial parts and supply chains and Anduril&&num;8217&semi;s deep expertise in artificial intelligence&comma; missionization&comma; and systems integration&comma; the partnership will accelerate speed to market for critical hybrid VTOL capabilities at a fraction of the cost of more traditional alternatives&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Archer’s efforts on this project will be part of its new Archer Defense program&period; To support this initiative and for other general corporate purposes&comma; Archer raised &dollar;430 million in additional equity capital&comma; with participation from<strong> <&sol;strong>Stellantis&comma; United Airlines&comma; and new institutional investors&comma; including Wellington Management and Abu Dhabi investment holding company 2PointZero&comma; a subsidiary of UAE’S largest listed entity&comma; IHC&period; Archer ended Q3’24 with &dollar;502M of cash and cash equivalents on its balance sheet and this raise brings Archer’s total capital raised to nearly &dollar;2B to date&period; Following this capital raise&comma; and together with Archer&&num;8217&semi;s other announced financing arrangements&comma; Archer believes it is now well-positioned with one of the sector&&num;8217&semi;s leading balance sheets with no near-term financing needs&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Rapid innovation and scalable production are critical for maintaining technological superiority&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said Shane Arnott&comma; SVP of Engineering at Anduril&period; &&num;8220&semi;Anduril and Archer share a common vision for advancing capabilities that meet urgent national security needs&comma; and we look forward to partnering with Archer to bring advanced vertical lift aircraft to our customers&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Adam Goldstein&comma; founder and CEO of Archer&comma; said&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The Archer team has deep expertise in the rapid design&comma; engineering&comma; and production of next-generation vertical-lift aircraft&period; With Anduril by our side&comma; and this new influx of capital&comma; we will accelerate the development and deployment of advanced aerospace technologies at scale&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Archer Defense will be led by its Head of Advanced Projects&comma; Joseph Pantalone&period; Mr&period; Pantalone recently joined Archer and is a seasoned leader in military aviation with nearly 30 years of experience at Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky&period; He will draw from the continued support of Archer’s world-class Defense Advisory Board&comma; which was formed in May of 2023 and is made up of highly decorated and distinguished retired military leaders&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;