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A little-known drone company backed by Donald Trump Jr has won its largest-ever contract from the Pentagon, as the US government expands its drone procurement.
Florida-based Unusual Machines, in which Trump Jr has held a $4mn stake, said it had been contracted by the US army to manufacture 3,500 drone motors, alongside various other drone parts.
The company added that the army indicated it planned to order an additional 20,000 components from Unusual Machines next year.
Allan Evans, the company’s chief executive, said he believed it was the largest order for Unusual Machines parts from the US government to date, but declined to disclose the value of the contract.
“The ability to train like we fight, using drones that are reliable . . . gives our soldiers the confidence they need for real-world scenarios,” Chief Warrant Officer 4 John Brown of the 101st Airborne Division said of the acquisition.
Unusual Machines brought Trump Jr on as an adviser in November 2024. The FT earlier this year found that shares in the company almost tripled in price in the weeks leading up to its disclosure of the move.
Soon after Trump Jr came on board, Unusual Machines disclosed that he owned 331,580 shares, which would currently be worth roughly $4mn.
Trump Jr is not required to disclose whether he has since sold any of his stake, but Evans told Bloomberg earlier this year that the president’s son had continued to invest in recent fundraising rounds.
In response to questions about the Pentagon contract, Evans told the FT than Don Jr “did not advise or do anything else on this deal”.
“Don has never communicated with anyone in the Administration on behalf of Unusual Machines or about the contract in question,” said a spokesperson for Trump Jr. “His advisory role with them has nothing to do with interfacing with the government.”
The procurement, announced last week, comes after President Donald Trump in June signed an executive order aimed at boosting the US’s nascent drone industry, for both commercial and military use.
Defence secretary Pete Hegseth has since moved to expedite the production and deployment of military drones and empowered commanders to independently procure and test the technology.
Hegseth’s Pentagon has emphasised the importance of drones in modern warfare, with the army particularly focused on acquiring them en masse at low cost. The service is also pursuing the acquisition of technology from commercial firms and defence tech start-ups.
US army secretary Daniel Driscoll told an event earlier this month that his service is leading the Pentagon’s counter-drone efforts and “will equip soldiers with these kinds of expendable drones that deliver devastating effects at a massive discount. I cannot overstate the impact drones will have on warfare and homeland defence.”
Driscoll told the FT earlier this month that his drone vision for the army includes its special forces “Ranger Regiment and our Delta Force and all of our elite infantry-like units having drones with them”, along with embedded software engineers.
Unusual Machines has struck deals with other US defence suppliers in recent months, inking a $12.8mn agreement with Strategic Logix in September and a $1.6mn deal with an unnamed domestic defence drone manufacturer in August.
The company, which is publicly traded and is working on manufacturing more of its components in the US, has also been harmed by Trump tariffs.
In the first quarter of the year, it said the levies contributed to a $3.3mn operating loss. Unusual Machines has warned that the cost of sourcing components from countries other than China could impact profits.
The US army did not respond to a request for comment.
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