One of the modern battlefield’s biggest weaknesses remains the same: keeping frontline troops resupplied safely and without interruption. Traditional logistics, which demand runways, security, and time, are becoming increasingly fragile in contested environments. Ondas, a leading provider of advanced autonomous systems, has announced it is addressing this challenge with its autonomous cargo system, Grasshopper, after securing a new contract worth more than $6 million from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).
The contract was awarded to DZYNE Technologies, which Ondas recently acquired and which now operates under the company’s dedicated defense division, Ondas Sentinel. Through this contract, the company aims to accelerate development of the Long-Range Grasshopper™, a runway-independent autonomous aerial cargo system.
The Expertise Behind Grasshopper
The engineering behind the autonomous cargo system is nothing new either. DZYNE Technologies, which has led the platform’s years-long development process, was already working with AFRL on this system before joining Ondas. Flight tests conducted in 2024-2025 validated autonomous deployment, jet-engine air-start, long-range navigation, and precision payload delivery. The new contract aims to translate this test data into a scalable operational capability aligned with the U.S. Air Force’s Agile Combat Employment (ACE) concept.
There’s substance behind the project as well. The autonomous cargo system is built on the mature Grasshopper glider architecture, which is already in operational use and has a track record of precisely delivering critical payloads of up to 500 pounds (roughly 227 kg). The work under the contract isn’t limited to a single variant, either — it covers both the existing glider-type Grasshopper units and the newly developed jet-powered Long-Range variant. Development activities span a wide range, from extending flight range and endurance, to modular payload integration, to autonomous navigation in GPS-limited or fully GPS-denied environments, to improving reliability and manufacturability for large-scale fielding.
The Acquisition’s Autonomous Cargo System Payoff
The contract marks the first major federal win in autonomous cargo systems to come out of Ondas’s acquisition of DZYNE Technologies. Ondas Chairman and CEO Eric Brock and Ondas Sentinel CEO Ryan Hartman both framed the development as part of the company’s strategy to expand its autonomous defense portfolio.
The autonomous cargo system Long-Range Grasshopper™ is part of Ondas’s growing defense portfolio, which also includes its long-endurance ISR platforms LEAP and ULTRA, along with a range of counter-UAS systems. AFRL’s investment reflects the growing demand for small, low-cost, long-range unmanned systems capable of sustaining distributed forces under threat.
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Source: C4Defence–DZYNE
