It never hurts to have a few well-connected friends, especially one with a key to the White House. Late last week, Donald Trump Jr.-backed drone and drone component company Unusual Machines ($UMAC) announced that it has won a contract to supply the Army with 3,500 drone motors and other components. Business as (un)usual.
Built different: Unusual Machines—which went public in February 2024—has two main business lines:
- Fat Shark, which designs and manufactures ultra-low latency video goggles for drone pilots, motors, and other drone components. UM bought Fat Shark from Red Cat in 2024, concurrent with their IPO.
- Rotor Riot, a drone-focused e-commerce marketplace where they sell the aforementioned components.
The motors and parts are manufactured at the company’s new 17,000-square-foot facility in Orlando, FL. That whole “made in the USA” thing is a major selling point and makes them NDAA and BLUE UAS compliant.
Unusual Machines did not reveal the exact terms of the Army contract, but (roughly) they plan to supply 3,500 motors for the Army’s 101st Airborne Division’s deployment of the new Attritable Battlefield Enabler (A.B.E.) V1.01 drones.
The Army also bought up other drone components from Unusual Machines, including their Aura Analog Camera, Aura VTX, Brave Flight Controller, and Brave electronic speed controller (ESC). Sounds like a pretty hefty order.
Big buzz: The Army contract is the latest in a string of big wins for Unusual Machines. In the past few months, they’ve secured:
- An $800,000 order from Red Cat for controllers, cameras, goggles, and motors for Red Cat’s FANG drones in early October.
- A $12.8M order from Strategic Logix for components for its Rapid Reconfigurable Systems Line UAV platform in late September.
- A $1.6M order from an unnamed “domestic defense drone manufacturer” for Fat Shark Aura cameras and HDO+ goggles in August.
They’ve also made some major investments themselves.
- The company took part in a $41M private investment in public equity (PIPE) funding round for Kopin, an optical systems and high-performance microdisplay company in September.
- They were also part of an $8M investment in optics and imaging system company LightPath. Both investments were made alongside Ondas Holdings.
It’s looking like Unusual Machines’ Army contract could evolve into a pretty lucrative deal. Beyond the current order, the company says the service has “indicated plans to expand procurement, targeting an additional order of 20,000 components, including motors, from Unusual Machines in 2026.”
Don’s drone dollars: Trump Jr.’s ties to the company have, predictably, raised a few eyebrows. He joined the company as an investor and advisor in November 2024 after becoming a partner at 1789 Capital, a VC firm with investments in Anduril, Hadrian, Firehawk, and other defense tech companies. Per company filings, he owns 331,580 shares in Unusual Machines, currently valued at roughly $4M, and is the third-largest shareholder.
Despite the optics, Unusual Machines has repeatedly denied that Trump Jr.’s role at the company gives it an unfair advantage or inside information. “Don has never communicated with anyone in the administration on behalf of Unusual Machines or about the contract in question,” a spokesperson for Trump Jr. told the Financial Times. “His advisory role with them has nothing to do with interfacing with the government.”
Still, it never hurts to have the president’s son sitting at the cap table.