AIRO

Thank you for standing by. My name is Janine, and I will be your conference operator for today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to AIRO 1st quarter 2026 earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad, and to withdraw your question, please press star 1 again. I would now like to turn the call over to Dan Johnson, Executive Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to the AIRO Group Holdings, Inc. first quarter 2026 earnings call. We appreciate you joining us today and look forward to sharing an update on our progress and performance. With me on the call are Dr. Chirinjeev Kathuria, our Executive Chairman, Captain Joseph Burns, our Chief Executive Officer, and Dr. Mariya Pylypiv, our Chief Financial Officer. Replay information for today's call can be found in our earnings press release issued earlier this morning. Today's call will include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Safe Harbor Provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but not limited to, statements relating to AIRO's 2026 outlook. Forward-looking statements represent our management's beliefs and assumptions only as of the date made. Information on factors that could affect the company's financial results is included, and it's discussed non-GAAP financial measures.

These non-GAAP financial measures are in addition to and not a substitute for or superior to measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. Reconciliations between GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures and a discussion of the limitations of using non-GAAP measures versus their closest GAAP equivalent is available in our earnings release. Additionally, we plan to discuss drone segment backlog, a definition of which can be found in our earnings release. With that, I'll turn it over to our Executive Chairman, Dr. Chirinjeev Kathuria.

Thanks, Jack. Thank you all for joining us today. First, I will begin with a brief strategic overview before turning it over to Joe to walk through the business. 2025 was a foundational year for our company, and we believe the first quarter was another step in creating the key infrastructure that we can leverage throughout the remainder of this growth year. We continue to execute on our vision for a differentiated, integrated aerospace and defense platform positioned at the intersection of defense mobility, security, and training. I am proud of our team's effort as we refine our strategic focus on opportunities that best align customer demand, operational timelines, and durable long-term value. This focused approach allows us to deploy capital more effectively, accelerate platform development, and scale the business in a disciplined manner as a newly public company.

Our call today will highlight a few key points that I want to emphasize before turning it over to Joe. First, as Joe will note further, we are repositioning the business to focus on the drone market. This is intentional and part of our strategy to diversify our product portfolio. In doing so, we recently introduced several new platforms, including the RQ-70, which complements the RQ-35 with extended range, higher payload capacity, upgraded sensors, and a competitive price point. We also recently unveiled the JC-250 and the JX-250 drone aircraft, designed to achieve over 1,000 miles of range and 16 hours of endurance in the ISR configuration. Together, these platforms broaden our addressable market and reinforce our focus on scalable, mission-ready drone solutions. Second, we are reaffirming our expectations to achieve Blue UAS certification in the second quarter of 2026.

Third, demand remains stable with the total drone backlog exceeding $150 million as of April 30th, and we're reiterating our full year guidance of 2026 revenue growth guidance of 15%-25%. Consistent with that outlook, our first quarter top-line results were in line with internal expectations. We believe this first quarter performance sets the stage for stronger execution and growth across the remaining quarters of the year. With that, let me turn it over to Joe to discuss our segments and the market. Joe?

Thank you, Chirinjeev. It's great to be with you all here today. I am pleased to report a solid start to the year, highlighted by disciplined investment to build out our operational infrastructure. Top-line results were in line with our internal expectations, and the quarter reflects the revenue lumpiness inherent in our business model. Despite this variability, we remain highly confident in our ability to deliver within the full-year guidance ranges we previously provided. Mariya will walk you through the financial details later in this call. Our NATO business is typically driven by larger country-specific orders, which can create quarter-to-quarter variability in delivery timing. This does not impact our full-year performance, as these orders are generally fulfilled within the calendar year tied to funding. While supply chain dynamics can also influence timing, these effects have historically normalized within the year and are reflected in our planning assumptions.

As a result, our confidence in our full-year outlook remains strong. At the same time, we're actively working to reduce quarterly variability by expanding our international and domestic revenue base. We have invested in business development, scaled manufacturing across Denmark and the U.S., and advanced key initiatives such as Blue UAS certification and new product introductions. Over time, we expect these actions to improve revenue balance, reduce volatility, and support continued backlog growth. Against this backdrop, I want to be very clear, we are executing on a strategic shift in how we position our business. We are sharpening our focus around the drone market, where we see the most significant and immediate opportunity, while positioning us for long-term growth. AIRO's flight heritage, engineering expertise, and operational know-how position us extremely well to capitalize on this momentum.

As part of this effort, we are continuing to optimize our portfolio, including evaluating strategic alternatives for our training business. We see ongoing underlying demand across the training market, and CDI remains a valuable, albeit asset-heavy operation. That said, we are assessing its long-term role within our portfolio as we scale our other segments. We expect to discuss this in more detail later in the call. At the same time, we are continuing to strengthen our core drone offerings. Over the past several quarters, we have been developing new products and solutions that expand our addressable market, build on our core capabilities, and further strengthen our competitive advantage relative to other drone manufacturers. We are concentrating our efforts on a large cargo drone platform and an ISR variant. These programs leverage a common foundation, can be developed at a fraction of the cost, and face significantly lower regulatory hurdles.

We believe this approach enables more predictable, diversified revenue streams, and represents the most efficient deployment of our resources. This focus meaningfully differentiates AIRO from many public peers and positions us as a pure-play drone company with scalable demand over time. It also aligns tightly with our mission and positions us to move faster, scale more efficiently, and create durable shareholder value. All said, I am proud to share that we've unveiled two new drone variants this past week at AUVSI's XPONENTIAL 2026 conference in Detroit, the JX-250 and the JC-250. In the ISR configuration, the JX-250, the drone is expected to achieve over 1,000 miles of range with up to 16 hours of endurance.

We are targeting first flights later this year and expect these aircraft to be operationally ready and commercialized in 2027, consistent with our prior expectations. These drones leverage our unique patented IP for slowed rotor technology and are complementary of our existing drone products. This represents another step in diversifying our product portfolio, and we believe we are still in the early innings of that effort. Turning to our broader product lineup, the RQ-35 Heidrun continues to serve as our core platform today. At the same time, we are very excited about several new platforms we plan to introduce over the coming months. One such platform is the RQ-70 Dainn, which is complementary to the RQ-35. The RQ-70 Dainn addresses a distinct operational profile with enhanced capabilities, most notably being a significantly extended flight range. It also offers higher payload capacity and upgraded sensor options.

We also expect the RQ-70 to be highly competitive from a pricing standpoint, coming in below many legacy competitor systems. As a result, we believe this platform is well-positioned to gain market share quickly following its introduction. Another key differentiator is our AI integration, which is directly enhancing the value we deliver to customers. As I have mentioned on previous calls, our goal at AIRO is to embed AI across every product we build, including both drones and avionics. We are already marketing and selling the AI-enabled full-stack RQ-35 Heidrun. Over the course of the year, we will roll out additional onboard AI applications leveraging our existing platform infrastructure. For example, our onboard AI enables real-time identification and classification of enemy assets and threats while strengthening navigation, situational awareness, mission execution, and autonomy. This drives faster, more informed decisions in the field. This is just the beginning.

Our roadmap extends across the entire fleet, with AI enhancing autonomy and mission performance, especially in GPS-denied environments. These capabilities further set AIRO apart with strong customer validation to date. We are building on that momentum with new AI initiatives and will continue to provide updates in the quarters ahead. We are also reaffirming our timeline to achieve Blue UAS certification in the second quarter of 2026. As I've alluded in prior calls, the Blue UAS certification is a key milestone for AIRO that is finally within reach. This incredible opportunity significantly expands our total addressable market as it provides us the chance to support the U.S. Department of Defense, plus aiding in rapidly scaling domestic adoption. Being Blue UAS certified is a key priority for the AIRO team.

Receiving the green light for Blue UAS certification supports our Made in America expansion strategy, and the AIRO team has experienced fully assembling RQ-35 Heidrun drones in our U.S. manufacturing facility in Phoenix, Arizona. Turning to avionics, Aspen, our core avionics business, performed in line with our top-line expectations for the quarter. Segment margins were impacted primarily by upgrade-related pricing programs, as well as the timing of operating expenses during the period. Neither of these factors change our long-term view of the strength and trajectory of that business. We continue to see consistent demand for Aspen products, particularly driven by performance, reliability, and technological differentiation of our sensor and GPS offerings. Additionally, we maintain a solid pipeline supported by multiple multi-year OEM agreements while continuing to invest in the development and innovation of the Aspen product portfolio. Innovation remains a core priority for Aspen.

We are actively advancing next-generation sensor and navigation solutions, which we displayed at the AUVSI XPONENTIAL Trade Show this past week. These generation systems are designed to expand functionality, improve performance, and further solidify Aspen's leadership position in avionics sensing and GPS technology. Strategically, Aspen continues to play a critical role within our broader company profile, with meaningful synergies yet to be unlocked. We see compelling opportunities to integrate Aspen Avionics more deeply into our drone business. Over time, we also anticipate increased internalization of avionics systems on board our unmanned platforms. Synergies like this have the potential to streamline our operation, reduce supply chain complexity, and ultimately strengthen our long-term gross profit margin profile. These dynamics reinforce AIRO's long-term competitive advantage. On to our training business. Performance for the period was largely as expected but also reflects the variability that can characterize this segment.

As I alluded to earlier, we continue to see underlying demand across the training market. However, many of these task orders that are available are not yet favorable to CDI, yet. CDI remains a valuable asset, and we continue to see the long-term potential in the segment. That said, the training business carries a more asset-heavy operating model, and as a result, we are assessing its strategic fit and longer-term role within our broader portfolio, particularly as we further develop and scale our operating agreements. Looking ahead, we are well-positioned to pursue several upcoming long-term close air support training opportunities. At the same time, we are exploring a range of strategic alternatives for this segment, including maintaining our current approach.

We believe that a greater emphasis on unmanned systems, combined with operational efficiencies and synergies across our other businesses, may offer stronger alignment with AIRO's long-term vision of capital and allocation priorities, and we are evaluating the most effective path forward to support that strategy. Turning to capital deployment, our strong balance sheet with minimal debt gives us flexibility, and we are being deliberate in how we use it. We continue to evaluate inorganic opportunities with discipline, focusing on acquisitions that would be accretive within 12 months and that strategically enhance our drone and avionics platforms. We do, however, see a fundamental disconnect between our stock price and the underlying value of the business, and at current levels, we view share repurchases as an attractive and flexible way to return capital and drive long-term shareholder value long term.

At the same time, we remain committed to a balanced capital allocation framework and will continue to evaluate disciplined inorganic opportunities that support our core platforms. Overall, our approach is deploy capital in a way that maximizes long-term shareholder value with selective M&A playing a vital role. In closing, the initiatives, discipline, and efforts we have employed to date bolster our strategy of delivering mission-ready ISR systems that can be reduced, upgraded, and supported at scale. With that, I will turn it over to Maria, who will walk you through the financial results and provide more context on the puts and takes to our guidance ranges.

Thank you, Joe, and good morning, everyone. For the first quarter of 2026, revenue was $8.9 million, compared to $11.8 million in the first quarter of 2025. This decrease in revenue was as expected and modestly ahead of our internal expectations. These fluctuations reflect expected business top-line variability with timing-related customer shipments. Gross profit for the quarter was $2.4 million, representing a gross margin of 26.6%, compared to gross profit of $6.9 million and gross margin of 58.8% versus the same period last year. This decrease in gross margin year-over-year is not reflective of our true underlying demand. Rather, the margin compression is a result of revenue mix shift solely in Q1 towards drone upgrades.

Our internal estimates do not assume that upgrades will be the dominant driver of drone revenue in the remaining quarters this year. Instead, we assume pure drone deliveries will be the leading driver of revenue in Q2 and in the remaining quarters, favorably impacting margins going forward. Operating loss for the quarter was $17.2 million, versus $3.1 million in the first quarter of 2025. This year-over-year decline is a result of lower revenue, higher cost of sales, and higher operating expenses due to the post-IPO investments that we have previously communicated. We remain disciplined in our cost control efforts and our continued focused deployments of investments in key areas to build up the required infrastructure to support our demand.

Our first quarter net loss was $15.5 million, up from $2 million in the first quarter of 2025 due to the factors we just discussed. First quarter 2026 EBITDA was negative $14.3 million, compared to positive $2.7 million in the prior year period. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was negative $12.8 million, compared to just about break even in the first quarter 2025. This reflects the same product mix dynamics and continued investments in scaling the business. We do have ample levers in our arsenal that allow us to moderate or accelerate spending when needed, though we believe we are at the point in our growth journey where spending in an efficient but deliberate manner is the correct path forward as we build the necessary infrastructure to succeed in our next chapter as a public company.

Turning to cash flow and liquidity. As of March 31, 2026, we had $54.2 million in cash on the balance sheet with little debt. As of April 30, 2026, we had more than $150 million in drone backlog, showing stability from the $150 million we reported on our fourth quarter call just over a month ago. We expect the majority of this backlog to convert to revenue within the next 12 months. As a reminder, this excludes any U.S. backlog, which will provide considerable upside to our backlog estimate once included. We intentionally view our backlog as conservative, and alongside a robust sales pipeline, this positions us to generate incremental top-line contribution beyond the revenue embedded in our current backlog. We continue to define this metric as backlogs that we expect to reasonably convert over the next 12 months.

Given we are looking at 12 months from today, this provides visibility into more than just first quarter of 2027. While this backlog represents demand over the near term, our total pipeline continues to grow and is reflective of the long-term demand we have highlighted throughout this call. Given our visibility for the remainder of the year, we expect a record second half, and more specifically, a record fourth quarter, providing strong momentum heading into 2027. That said, for 2027, we expect revenue growth to outpace what we have projected for 2026, with further outperformance coming from U.S. demand. Turning to our outlook. Based on our current order pipeline and demand environment, we are reiterating our full year 2026 revenue growth of 15%-25% year-over-year.

Despite a year-over-year decrease in revenue this quarter due to reasons Joe outlined earlier, we are extremely confident that AIRO will achieve our guided revenue growth expectations and ultimately believe we have a very strong opportunity to outperform this guided range. Let me provide some additional color on our internal assumptions. First, we expect this first quarter to be the low water mark for the year with respect to both top and bottom lines. We expect a roughly 40-60 first half, second half split, with the third quarter sequentially lower versus the second quarter. Those expectations reflect our current visibility of large drone order deliveries as a part of our typical order of business. Second, we expect low single-digit gross margin compression compared to fiscal year 2025, largely driven by first quarter dynamics, which again included a higher percentage of drone upgrades versus our internal assumptions.

Third, the ramp-up in our investments needed to scale our operations, impacting both R&D and sales and marketing, will be partially offset by a decrease year-over-year in our G&A costs. As a reminder, we are deliberately accelerating our investments to build the foundation for our future as a high-growth company. Turning to profitability. As we continue to invest in buildings infrastructure to support our long-term growth, we're initiating full year 2026 Adjusted EBITDA guidance in the negative mid to high teens dollar range. We expect the majority of the EBITDA loss to occur in the first half of the year, with the first quarter performance in line with or modestly better than the second quarter. We are still in the early stages of our growth phase, and we are deliberately accelerating investment to support long-term expansion.

At the same time, we remain disciplined in our cost management and retain significant flexibility to adjust our cost structure as needed. In closing, and to reiterate, we are actively making investments now to reduce our quarterly variability going forward, most notably on the top line. We're specifically diversifying our revenue base, scaling manufacturing and accelerating new product introductions. As these products ramp up and contribute to a larger share of revenue, this will translate into reduced quarterly volatility with improved backlog growth. This ultimately reinforces our long-term confidence. With that, operator, we're ready for questions.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. I would like to remind everyone for 1 question, 1 follow-up. Our question comes from the line of Andres Sheppard from BTIG. Your line is open.

Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. I wanna ask first on the Bullet and Nord JVs. I mean, what's the latest there? Have they officially closed? And if so, you know, what could we expect in the way of financial contribution, maybe not this year, but into 2027?

Thank you, Andre. It's Joe. Appreciate the question. You know, we're still working through the regulatory issues for those two particular joint ventures, we're making great progress outlining terms, we hope to close them in a very timely manner. The partnerships and JVs are a compelling route for us because they really can expand our access to multiple markets beyond just the U.S. or beyond the host country where they happen to be. We're also evaluating other partnerships as well, continuing to look at those opportunities and platforms where there are really clear strategic alignment. All that said, you know, we're still details to finalize, basically, as we said before, around the regulatory environment.

As soon as we get that finalized, we will absolutely be in a position to notify everyone that these things are solidly signed. Maria, any follow on for that?

No, Joe, you answered it perfectly. Thank you.

All right. That's helpful. You know, I wanna talk about pipeline. You obviously, you know, indicated that it remains very robust. Is there any kind of quantitative color that you can provide there to characterize the pipeline?

Andres, in terms of a backlog, currently, we are just discussing it from our best visibility in the next 12 months. We are actively building our pipeline, and it's expanding monthly across multiple geographies and customers. What I will add is our current backlog is, as we mentioned on the call, it's next 12 months and only focused on our out of U.S. Sky-Watch drone orders, and it does not include our, you know, the backlog we're building in U.S. and for other products that we are unveiling. Joe, do you wanna add anything?

Yeah. To further clarify that, as I'd mentioned a little earlier, we are very much on track for our Blue UAS certification in the U.S. Part of that involved investing heavily, as you saw in our OpEx numbers for the first quarter, heavily in our factory in Phoenix. Once the factory was up and the process hoops have been gone through, we feel very confident in getting our final Blue UAS certification. As soon as that happens, obviously that opens us up for UAS sales of the RQ-35 within the U.S. As those sales come in, we will adjust any earnings guidance or numbers as appropriate based on that. We wanna be conservative and are waiting for that particular trigger to happen.

Got it. Got it. I guess on that point, as you await Blue UAS certification, you know, I know you guys were previously had your eyes set on Drone Dominance. As we look down the road to further phases of that program, I mean, are you considering future bids? If so, like, maybe what do some of your proposals look like? Are you partnering with somebody? Is there any color you can give there as to where you're at?

Sure. I think Drone Dominance has taken a very interesting path, right. The initial ones we saw were kind of, there was a lot of concern with the way the bid process went out. I think that the government came back and refined it to a much more solid process. They still have some issues, we believe, in the actual bidding itself. Yes, we are involved in this as a sub right now. We know we have the manufacturing capability to work these. We're excited about the future of it. We're doing a lot of internal design of airframes as well to help further enhance our ability to produce, you know, the large part of the Drone Dominance around what's known as NDAA compliance.

In other words, ensuring that there are no Chinese components in the particular airframes. We're very confident of our supply chain and our ability to provide a, an aircraft that's largely U.S. manufactured, if not 100%.

Got it. Joe, Maria,

We do see more phases for Drone Dominance coming out as well in the near future.

Got it. I appreciate the color there, Joe and Maria. I'll hop back in the queue. Thanks so much.

Thank you, Andre.

Thank you. Again, should you have a question, please press star one. There are no further questions at this time. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

Thank you for standing by. My name is Rob and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the AIRO fourth quarter 2025 earnings call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Dan Johnson, Executive Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to the AIRO Group Holdings, Inc. fourth quarter 2025 earnings call. We appreciate you joining us today and look forward to sharing an update on our progress and performance. With me on the call are Dr. Chirinjeev Kathuria, our Executive Chairman, Captain Joe Burns, our Chief Executive Officer, and Dr. Mariya Pylypiv, our Chief Financial Officer. Replay information for today's call can be found in our earnings press release issued earlier this morning. Today's call will include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Safe Harbor Provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including but not limited to statements relating to AIRO's 2026 outlook. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause our actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements represent our management's beliefs and assumptions only as of the date made. Information on factors that could affect the company's financial results is included in its filings with the SEC from time to time. In addition to our prepared remarks, our earnings press release, SEC filings, and a replay of today's call can be found on our investor relations website at investor.theairogroup.com. In addition, during today's call, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures. These non-GAAP financial measures are in addition to and not a substitute for or superior to measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. Reconciliations between GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures and a discussion of the limitations of using non-GAAP measures versus their closest GAAP equivalent is available in our earnings release. Additionally, we plan to discuss drone segment backlog, a definition of which can be found in our earnings release.

With that, I'll turn the call over to our Executive Chairman, Dr. Chirinjeev Kathuria.

Thank you, Dan. It's a pleasure to be with all of you today. As Executive Chairman, I'll begin with a brief strategic overview before turning it over to Joe to walk through our operating segments. 2025 was a defining year for AIRO Group. We made meaningful progress operationally, strategically, and financially as we continued building what we believe is a differentiated, integrated aerospace and defense platform positioned at the intersection of defense mobility, security, and training. During the year, we continued to refine our strategic focus around areas where we see the strongest alignment between customer demand, execution timelines, and long-term value creation. I'm extremely proud of how our team executed across our core businesses, drones, training, and avionics, while advancing our roadmap in defense mobility with increased emphasis on medium-lift, multi-role unmanned platforms that support logistics, ISR, and other mission-critical applications.

This focused approach allows us to deploy capital more effectively, accelerate platform development, and scale the business in a disciplined manner as a newly public company. For full year 2025, we delivered revenues of $90.9 million and EBITDA of $24.7 million. Fourth quarter revenue came in at $48.3 million, reflecting strong execution, particularly within our drone and training segments. Also, cash totaled $74.4 million as of December 31, 2025. We are pleased with this performance, especially given the rapidly evolving operational requirements of our defense customers. One of AIRO's core strengths is our ability to rapidly integrate new capabilities into deployed platforms and deliver mission-ready systems in a dynamic and contested environment. That agility continues to differentiate us. Beyond the financial results, 2025 was a transformational year.

We successfully went public, strengthened our balance sheet, expanded our U.S. manufacturing footprint, advanced towards Blue UAS certification, and announced strategic joint ventures that'll expand our global reach and production scale. At the same time, we broadened our presence across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Ukraine. We exited the year with strong momentum and increasing visibility into 2026. With that, let me turn it over to Joe to give you more color on our segments and the market. Joe?

Thanks, Chirinjeev, and welcome everybody. Let me start by stepping back and framing how we are approaching the business. 2025 was an important execution year for AIRO. Across our drone, avionics, and training businesses, we made meaningful progress in advancing our position as a defense-focused, integrated unmanned systems platform, delivering combat-proven ISR capability today while building towards scalable logistics and multi-role drone platforms in the future. Importantly, our business today is overwhelmingly driven by drones, which represented approximately 87% of total revenue in 2025 and continue to be the primary engine of growth and demand across the company. Our focus is clear: supporting U.S. and allied defense customers with mission-ready systems that can be produced, upgraded, and sustained at scale.

One of the highlights of 2025 was completing the first RQ-35 intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance drones produced to full operational standard at our U.S. manufacturing facility in Phoenix, Arizona. This marks the first U.S.-manufactured RQ-35 systems and a major milestone in our Made in America expansion strategy. The systems were built to the same specifications as those produced at our Denmark facility, completed phase I of U.S. manufacturing and validation, and concluded a comprehensive flight test campaign successfully in December. This achievement reflects our commitment to delivering combat-proven ISR systems from U.S. soil and strengthens our ability to serve both domestic and allied defense customers. The RQ-35 Heidrun continues to perform exceptionally well in GPS-denied and contested environments. Demand for combat-proven, autonomous ISR systems remains strong across NATO-aligned nations and allied defense customers. We are increasingly positioned as a scaled supplier of mission-ready platforms to allied defense customers.

We continue to invest in strengthening and expanding our UAS solution offering and are preparing for new multiple product launches in the first half of 2026. In particular, we are embracing our capabilities in artificial intelligence and edge computing to further broaden and differentiate our solution portfolio. We remain on track to receive Blue UAS certification in the first half of 2026, which we believe will meaningfully expand our addressable U.S. Department of Defense opportunities and allow us to scale domestic adoption more aggressively. In addition, Sky-Watch, together with Aalborg University and a third partner, was awarded a $4.5 million program to develop counter-electronic warfare technology for integration into Sky-Watch UAS platforms, providing operators with greater mission assurance and operational continuity in denied or degraded environments. On the production side, we continue to scale manufacturing capability and operational efficiency.

Modernization of the Støvring facility in Denmark is intended to increase production throughput as demand expands. We have already invested heavily in plant expansion in Denmark and have the capacity to produce roughly 30% beyond our existing order stream. To support continued international growth, we opened a sales hub in Singapore to serve the Asia-Pacific region, initiated new trial programs across the APAC and EU, and expanded our local presence in Ukraine, allowing us to remain closely aligned with real-time battlefield requirements and continuously refine our systems based on active operational feedback. Additionally, we have added significant personnel resources with strong international governmental sales experience to our enterprise. Of note, we have also added the U.K. as a sales hub, allowing access to U.K. MOD and Middle East channels.

Taken together, these initiatives reinforce our strategy of delivering mission-ready ISR systems that can be produced, upgraded, and supported from both U.S. and allied manufacturing bases. Moving on to our two joint ventures that we announced in the second half of 2025. In November, we executed a joint venture with Nord-Drone Group to accelerate the deployment of battlefield-tested unmanned aerial systems across the United States, Ukraine, and NATO defense markets. The partnership, when completed, will combine AIRO's U.S. manufacturing infrastructure and government procurement expertise with Nord Drone's combat-proven technologies and high-volume production capabilities. Together, this will create a scalable framework to rapidly deliver mission-ready systems to allied defense customers. We also signed a letter of intent with Bullet, a Ukrainian developer of high-speed interceptor drones designed to counter hostile unmanned aerial threats.

The proposed joint venture is focusing on advancing these interceptor platforms for the U.S. and NATO defense markets while expanding production capability and accelerating next-generation development. We are working to finalize the JV with Bullet in the coming quarter and are excited to partner with them. Together, these partnerships will position AIRO not just as a drone developer, but as a scalable platform delivering combat-proven systems across the NATO defense ecosystem. Within that focus, medium-lift multi-role capability has become an increasingly important part of our long-term roadmap. These platforms are designed to support defense, logistics, persistent ISR, and other dual-use missions that require greater payload capacity, endurance, and operational flexibility. They allow us to address multiple mission sets with a single adaptable platform without the regulatory and infrastructure complexity associated with the passenger transport and represent a significant long-term opportunity for AIRO.

The launch aircraft, the JX-250 and the JC-250, is designed to carry up to 500 lbs of payload over distances of up to 250 mi, enabling high-value logistics and ISR missions in challenging or infrastructure-constrained environments. We expect the Jaunt platform to officially commercialize and be operationally ready in 2027. The use cases are compelling and initially defense dual-use driven, in natural disaster environments the ability to rapidly deliver critical supplies into damaged or inaccessible regions. In military settings, the aircraft can be utilized to transport ammunition and medical supplies to forward operating locations without exposing personnel to unnecessary risk. In commercial markets, it addresses remote and time-sensitive shipping applications where traditional infrastructure is limited. From inception, the Jaunt medium-lift multi-role drone has been engineered as a dual-use platform, serving both defense and commercial markets, which we believe significantly expands its long-term addressable opportunity.

We expect the platform to follow a disciplined development path with first flight targeted for late 2026 in the initial market availability expected in late 2027. Our training business continued to build momentum as well. We are proud to share that AIRO's training division, through our wholly owned subsidiary, Coastal Defense Inc., was awarded a $1.9 million one-year indefinite delivery and quantity contract to support U.S. Navy flight and joint terminal attack controller training programs. This award enhances a core element of naval readiness by delivering specialized training support services designed to elevate realism and execution of aviation and JTAC events. It reflects the Navy's continued confidence in our ability to support mission-critical training requirements. We have also finished the modification of one of our S-211 aircraft to make it flight-ready for military contracts and have already flown it on a contract to great success.

Our second S-211 will be ready by mid-2026. Additionally, we are 90% complete with modifications to our first L-39 aircraft to support live ordnance training missions. The second L-39 will be ready to employ live training munitions in May. Lastly, we are well-positioned to bid on multiple upcoming long-term close air support training contracts. The request for proposals should be released sometime in the second half of 2026. Aspen Avionics also performed well during the year. We advanced the development of the NexNav MAX 2, secured multi-year OEM purchase orders, and continued expanding foreign military engagement. Aspen remains strategically important for the vertical integration advantages it provides across our unmanned systems profile. Stepping back, the macro environment remains supportive, with sustained increases in defense spending across NATO and allied nations driven by modernization requirements and evolving threat profiles.

These investments are not only focused on force expansion, but increasingly on capabilities that enhance defense mobility, resilience, and operational flexibility, including ISR, counter-electronic warfare, resilient logistics platforms, and integrated training solutions. Importantly, this demand extends well beyond active conflict zones. It includes border security, maritime domain awareness, infrastructure protection, and allied force modernization across Europe and Asia-Pacific. We believe AIRO is well-positioned to capitalize on these trends through our integrated unmanned systems platform, with a particular emphasis on medium-lift multi-role drones that support mission-critical mobility and logistics requirements. In addition to organic growth, we remain disciplined in evaluating inorganic opportunities. I'd like to provide some color about the types of targets we're evaluating. Companies that will be accretive within 12 months, strategically aligned with our drone and avionics platforms, and value-enhancing for our shareholders.

Our balance sheet provides flexibility, and we intend to deploy capital thoughtfully as we remain opportunistic. As we close out the year, I want to step back and provide an update on how our priorities have continued to evolve as we focus on execution and long-term value creation. Building on the momentum we've seen across the business, including the continued success of the RQ-35 ISR drone and the deliberate shift away from passenger eVTOLs toward the medium-lift multi-role drones, where demand is more immediate and development timelines are better aligned with defense procurement cycles. Over the past year, we've made meaningful progress across our drone family, supported by increasing integration between our platforms, avionics, and training capabilities.

These systems continue to address real-world defense and dual-use mission requirements, ranging from ISR and logistics to operations in austere and infrastructure-constrained environments, where demand is tangible and use cases are well-established. As expected, our training and avionics segments remain important enablers of this strategy. Training continues to support customer readiness and fleet adoption, while avionics provides common architecture and mission flexibility across the platforms. Together, these segments strengthen customer relationships and scale alongside deployed fleets, reinforcing the durability of our overall business model as programs mature. Operationally, we have continued to invest in manufacturing, supply chain, and commercial infrastructure with a particular emphasis on scaling capacity in the United States while continuing to expand our European footprint. This integrated transcontinental approach supports our resilient production, tighter execution, and compliance across the U.S. and allied programs.

Our research and development, manufacturing, and commercial teams are increasingly coordinated, leveraging shared architectures, suppliers, and production processes across the AIRO portfolio. Against that backdrop, one of the most important refinements we made this year was sharpening our platform focus. As we've discussed previously, we have stepped away from passenger eVTOL concepts and concentrated more deliberately on multi-role, medium-lift drones where demand is more immediate and timelines are better aligned with customer procurement cycles. This refinement and strategy directly informs how we will allocate capital. Throughout the year, we've prioritized investments in R&D, manufacturing readiness, avionics commonality, training infrastructure, and supply chain resiliency, while primarily in the U.S., while continuing to support our European expansion. As a result, investment levels can vary from quarter to quarter based on program milestones, production sequencing, and supplier ramp-up. These fluctuations are intentional and reflect the long-term capacity building, not changes in underlying demand.

Similarly, revenue in our markets does not develop evenly on a quarterly basis. Delivery schedules, milestone timing, customer acceptance, and procurement cycles, often across U.S. and allied defense programs, can influence when revenue is recognized within a given year. In parallel, our training and avionics segments continue to scale as fleets deploy and operations mature, providing complementary growth characteristics over time. For those reasons, we continue to evaluate performance and provide guidance on a full-year basis, expressed as an annual revenue growth range. This perspective better reflects the progress we're making, the investments we're putting into place, and the underlying demand profile across our programs as they move from development into production and scale. Taken together, these efforts position AIRO as a focused defense mobility platform with differentiated capabilities in ISR, logistics, avionics and training, and a clear path towards scalability, long-term value creation.

With that context, I'll turn it over to Mariya, who will walk you through the financial results and discuss our annual revenue growth outlook in more detail.

Thank you, Joe, and good morning, everyone. For the fourth quarter of 2025, revenue was $48.3 million compared to $39.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, reflecting a continued demand for our drone platforms and deliveries incorporating the customer-requested capability upgrade to the RQ-35 Heidrun system. On a sequential basis, revenue increased from $6.3 million in Q3 to $48.3 million in Q4 of 2025, primarily reflecting approximately $20 million of revenue that shifted from the third quarter into the fourth quarter as a result of customer modifications. Gross profit for the quarter was $29.7 million, representing a gross margin of 61.4%, compared to a gross profit of $27.8 million and gross margin of 69.9% in the fourth quarter of 2024.

The change in the margin primarily reflects product mix, the timing of deliveries across the year, as well as the integration of upgraded system capabilities. Operating income for the quarter was $6 million, compared to $16.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, reflecting continued investment in engineering development, product scaling, and public company infrastructure as we support the growth of the platform. We reported break-even results for the quarter compared to the net loss of $800,000 in the fourth quarter of 2024. Fourth quarter of 2025 EBITDA was $8.8 million, compared to $8.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $8.9 million, compared to $19.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, reflecting the same product mix dynamics and continued investments in scaling the business.

Turning to full year 2025, revenue was $90.9 million, compared to $86.9 million in 2024, driven primarily by the drone segment despite shipment timing adjustments early in the year. Full year gross profit was $54.4 million, representing a gross margin of 59.9%, compared to $58.3 million and 67.1% gross margin in 2024. The change primarily reflects a different mix of product deliveries and the investments we have made to support long-term growth. For the year, we reported an operating loss of $28.8 million, compared to an operating loss of $17.4 million in 2024, reflecting continued investment in engineering capabilities, production capacity, and infrastructure to support our growth strategy.

Net loss for the year was $4.1 million compared to a net loss of $38.7 million in 2024, reflecting the absence of certain non-recurring items recorded in the prior year. For the full year 2025, EBITDA was $24.7 million compared to -$13.1 million in 2024. Adjusted EBITDA for the year was $5.7 million compared to $33.7 million in 2024. The year-over-year change primarily reflects shipment timing, product mix, and investments made throughout the year to scale the business following our transition to a public company. Turning to cash flow and liquidity. As of December 31, 2025, we had $74.4 million in cash on the balance sheet.

During the third quarter, we successfully completed a follow-on offering that raised $89.4 million in gross proceeds, which significantly strengthened our balance sheet and provides substantial resources for growth investments across our integrated drone training and avionics platform, as well as the flexibility to pursue opportunistic acquisitions of complementary businesses, products, services, or technologies. On the backlog and demand visibility, our order pipeline remains strong. As of March 31, 2026, we had approximately $150 million in drone segment backlog. This backlog amount was translated to U.S. dollars using applicable exchange rates as of the market close on March 27, 2026, and may increase or decrease based on fluctuations in the foreign exchange rates. We may experience reduction to drone segment backlog and/or significant order cancellations due to various factors, including delivery delays and production disruptions.

This backlog reflects continued demand for our drone platforms and provides meaningful visibility as we enter 2026. While we continue to grow our training and avionics businesses, our revenue profile remains predominantly driven by the drones. Turning our outlook based on our current order pipeline and demand environment, we expect full year 2026 revenue growth of 15%-25% year-over-year. Importantly, the guidance I provided for full year 2026 does not include the two joint ventures we have announced in the second half of 2025 with Nord Drone and Bullet. However, we do expect them to both be additive to our financials in 2026. Let me now provide some additional context on our revenue cadence. AIRO is a drone-led business, and drones drive most of our revenue. As a result, quarterly performance can vary based on delivery timing, customer acceptance, and program execution.

In the drone segment, we expect first quarter revenue to be primarily driven by field upgrades to deployed systems, with larger shipment planned for the following quarters. Accordingly, we believe it is more appropriate to view the first half of the year in aggregate rather than focusing on any single quarter in isolation. This reflects delivery timing, not any change in underlying demand or customer activity. Moving now to investment and margins. We continue to invest deliberately to scale the business for long-term growth. Those investments include expanding our sales capabilities, advancing R&D, strengthening strategic partnerships, and building out manufacturing and supply chain capacity. As those investments ramp, there may be some near-term impact on margins, but they are intentional and are aligned with supporting a larger, more diversified business over time.

Importantly, current margin dynamics reflect planned mix and timing effects associated with scaling production and integration-enhanced capabilities rather than pricing pressure and changes in underlying demand. In summary, quarterly variability in revenue and margins should be viewed in the context of delivery timing and planned investment. Given the delivery-driven nature of our drone business, we believe that business is best evaluated on a full year basis where demand strengths, backlog conversion, and the benefits of our investments are more clearly reflected. With that, operator, we are ready for questions.

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, simply press star one again. We do ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. We'll pause for just a moment to compile our Q&A roster. Our first question today comes from the line of Colin Canfield from Cantor Fitzgerald. Your line is open.

Hey, thank you for the question. As we think about the strategy change on air mobility, we estimate about $15 million of R&D in 2026 and $10 million in 2027 related to the human-rated portion of that project. Is it fair to assume that both of those line items of specific investment roll off? If that's fair, can you perhaps talk about kind of how you think about the profitability of the business in 2026 relative to that tailwind? Thank you.

Mariya, do you want to answer or then I can go ahead? Colin, just to answer your first question, you know, we're gonna reduce our capital expenditure because we're not developing a passenger eVTOL. We're focusing on the multi-role, medium-lift cargo joint vehicle. It is fair to say that capital expenditure is going to drop off. Going forward, it'll add meaningful revenues post 2027.

Got it. Okay. In terms of the line of sight for kind of the next set of orders, can you maybe talk about kind of how you see the mix of customer demand between U.S. international? How is the team thinking about accounting treatment? It sounds like we're getting a more crystallized definition of backlog. Is it fair to assume that when we see essentially orders from U.S. or orders from international, like we'll see those recognized as firm backlog?

Yep. Thanks Colin, it's Joe. Our backlog today is approximately $150 million, and we have really good visibility on a meaningful portion of that converting to revenue over the next 12 months. Our contracts tend to be large and program-based, as you know, so backlog growth and conversion can be nonlinear from quarter to quarter. Demand today remains primarily international while the U.S. pipeline continues to build. As we've talked about earlier, we have significantly added to our personnel roster to assist in that pipeline construction. From an accounting perspective, revenue is recognized upon delivery with a customer acceptance, which can create normal quarterly variability.

If we talk about other things of certification that will help with this model, with respect to Blue UAS, certification is helpful, but not necessarily the primary driver of our near-term revenue outlook. We're estimating to finish up that Blue certification mid-year as we've talked about before and as planned.

Got it. Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Andre Madrid from BTIG. Your line is open.

Yep. Thanks. Good morning. You know, another one on drone backlog. You know, it seems like there's some unfilled definitive orders and then there's some in backlog that is kind of undefinitive. Could you maybe provide more color as to what the mix exactly is? Yeah.

Go ahead, Joe, and then I can answer.

We have significantly strong visibility into our backlog as we've described. Very comfortable. In fact, we've gone so far as to produce massive numbers of airframes in anticipation of this actual backlog that we've discussed.

To answer your question, you know, the backlog was based, we did a bottoms-up approach looking at all our customers and NATO orders. Over the next, you know, 12 months, the team is very comfortable on the $150 million of firm backlog going forward.

Got it. I guess a follow-up to that. I mean, you know, your current backlog seems to, you know, last you through 2026. I mean, when do you expect orders to meaningfully step up to the point where we can be confident in growth into 2027 and beyond?

Joe, you wanna start?

Yeah. Andre, it's a continuing process, right? As we get in further into the year and we get orders from various NATO countries, that continues to substantiate itself. The actual product itself, the RQ-35, that's the primary drive for this, is really, you know, continues to outperform in the battlefield. We continue to see growth and acceptance across that pipeline. As we get further into the year and certainly into 2027, we'll release further guidance as to the growth of the product. So far it looks like it's a very stable and solid growth platform.

Yeah. The only thing, you know, we expect also meaningful growth as our joint ventures, you know, continue to re-mature. In our $150 million backlog, you know, we also expect, you know, significant U.S. pipeline growth. Joe can talk to you about, you know, delivery of our hybrid and what we've done in our Phoenix facility.

If you can allow me just a second to address that. We have got the certified facility up and running now in Phoenix. We've produced multiple drones already, as we talked about just a little bit ago. It's exciting times for that. We are ready to produce significant number of drones out of Phoenix and are filling the pipeline with DoD types of orders, which is currently in process and doing flight demos to support all of that.

Got it. One more if I could squeeze it in. You know, you previously said, I mean, to your point, you were talking about the Phoenix facility, and you previously said the 2026 outlook doesn't assume any U.S. sales. Is that still kind of the case? If so, I mean, just how much upside could we see to 15%-25% growth if we see any orders come in earlier than that?

Sure.

Right. I'll jump in. Apologies for earlier. I had a connection error and could not hear the first question. In terms of guidance, again, the guidance is primarily on NATO backlogs that we currently have, and any meaningful upside we will be releasing throughout the year when we see orders coming from U.S.

To specifically address the U.S. output, our Phoenix facility is up and operational. It's progressing in line with our plan. Our target capacity on that, by the way, is to produce up to 100 units per month. That's a significant growth for us. Current production is focused on demos and trials and business development, and we'll scale production in line with our demand and our contract visibilities, particularly to U.S. and DoD customers.

Got it. Appreciate the color. Thank you all.

Thanks.

Again, if you'd like to ask a question, it's star one on your telephone keypad. Your next question comes from a line of Brett Linzey from Mizuho. Your line is open. Brett, your line is open.

Hey, good morning, all. Just back to the full year 2026 revenue growth outlook. The 15%-25%. Maybe just a finer point on the individual pieces within that. And how much of the 150 backlog are you expecting to ship this year, so within 2026, as part of that outlook for drones?

Brett, we're giving guidance for the backlog. We expect significant portion of it to convert in the next 12 months. The reason our guidance is below the backlog is just to give us a margin of error if it shifts to the other quarters of 2027.

Brett, I would just add, and Maria can add, you know, the key drivers are drone profitability. You know, that's still 87% of our revenues, you know, today.

Maybe just shifting to the U.S. pipeline that you indicated was seeing pretty good momentum. Is there any way to dimension or quantify the level of activity relative to maybe 150 that you're seeing within the U.S. pipeline? Is it a magnitude of that? Is it, you know, a small fraction? Any color would be helpful.

Sure. Mariya or even Joe.

You know, Brett, I'm happy to jump in. In terms of 2026, as I mentioned, we did not provide any guidance for the U.S. sales. However, we expect that we'll be able to ramp up in the future where U.S. North America sales will be a significant portion of overall drone sales.

To qualify that a little bit, we do put that all in perspective of filling the pipeline. We have, as I'd mentioned just a bit ago, dramatically increased our sales and BD team specifically for the U.S. marketplace. We're currently participating in trials. We're excited to get in, and we do expect to see some activity in the near future with the U.S. with continued growth. As we all know, the U.S. marketplace is massive, and we plan on being a major player in that market.

Okay, great. Then just a quick follow-up on some of the JV structure and what the contribution could look like this year. I understand it's not contemplated within the framework in the outlook, but what are you thinking in terms of the financial impact this year potentially, both on the cost side and the revenue side?

You know, I can start, I think, and then I'll let Joe and Maria. I think what you're seeing, especially in the current conflicts, first-person view drones or kinetic drones are becoming very important. With Nord Drone, we have battlefield-proven drones. As you can see from the Middle East conflict, interceptor drones are becoming more and more important. Even if you look at yesterday's Wall Street Journal article, they don't want to spend the millions of dollars. We're very well-positioned along, you know, with our ISR, our Heidrun drones. In terms of, as Maria pointed out, we haven't included potential revenue from those two joint ventures as we're now currently looking at, you know, developing the pipeline and where they can be bid. Joe or Maria, do you wanna add anything?

Sure. Our joint ventures are contemplated as similar, close to a 50/50 type of a relationship. With all sales and contributions from the various conflicts around the planet will roll into the joint venture. It's all accretive to what we've already provided for guidance. You know, anything we do out of those between now and the end of this year certainly will add to the bottom line as well.

All right. Got it. Thanks a lot. Best of luck.

Thank you.

This concludes our question and answer session. I will now like to turn the call back over to Joe Burns, Chief Executive Officer, for closing remarks.

Yeah. Thank you, everybody, for joining us today. We're excited about our results from 2025 and really looking forward to a very successful 2026. We spent a lot of capital putting the company together and building for this growth opportunity. We certainly are seeing it in the drone segment and feel like we're putting our efforts in the right direction. We're excited to continue this growth pattern and look forward to our progress and giving you more guidance on our progress as we get through the quarters. Thanks again for joining us today.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.