Ondas Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:ONDS) shares enjoyed sturdy gains Thursday, as the company, a leading provider of autonomous aerial and ground robot intelligence through its Ondas Autonomous Systems (OAS) business unit and private wireless solutions through Ondas Networks, today announced it has placed its initial order of 500 Wåsp drones from Rift Dynamics to launch U.S. defense market distribution through its American Robotics subsidiary.
The Wåsp is a combat-ready, NDAA-compliant, attritable drone system designed to meet the growing demand from the U.S. Department of War (DOW) for "mass affordable" strike and perimeter defense platforms. With its modular architecture, NATO interoperability, and battlefield validation, Wåsp strengthens Ondas' layered defense portfolio alongside the Optimus autonomous aerial system and Iron Drone Raider counter-UAS solution.
"This first 500-unit order marks the beginning of a scalable program to deliver affordable, operationally effective attritable drone systems to U.S. defense customers," said CEO Eric Brock. "Demand from the U.S. Department of War and allied defense forces for mass-affordable attritable platforms is accelerating, and the Wåsp is engineered to meet that requirement. Leveraging Rift's NDAA-compliant design and Kitron proven global manufacturing expertise, Ondas is able rapidly scale production and deliver thousands of units per month."
ONDS shares leaped 41 cents, or 5.6%, to $7.72.
