The U.S. Air Force has expanded its funding for Joby Aviation’s autonomous flight technology to nearly $37 million, raising the ceiling on Joby’s operational testing contract to $50 million, Joby Aviation announced on Wednesday, November 4. The award came through AFWERX, the Air Force’s innovation arm, and supports autonomy software development and expanded operational testing in the Pacific toward sustained autonomous logistics operations, according to Joby’s announcement via Business Wire.
"This contract expansion is a powerful validation of the adaptability of Joby’s autonomy stack," Joby founder and chief executive JoeBen Bevirt said in Joby Aviation’s November 4 announcement. "This funding will accelerate our path to sustained uncrewed operations, delivering a single software solution that solves critical logistics challenges for both the U.S. military and cargo industries." Aviation Week, in its November 4 reporting, described the same $37 million AFWERX funding for Joby’s autonomy work.
The expansion follows Joby’s first autonomous flight across the United States, in which its autonomy system flew a Cessna Caravan from Concord, California, to North Carolina’s Outer Banks with zero control inputs from the onboard safety pilot, covering 6,665 miles with landings in 11 states, according to Joby’s announcement. The system, built on technology Joby acquired from Xwing in 2024, has completed more than 400 fully autonomous flights, the company said. The funding is for that autonomy software on a conventional Caravan, not for Joby’s electric air taxi, a distinction noted in DroneXL’s November 4 reporting on the contract.
In earlier exercises, the technology delivered critical replacement parts 24 hours faster than conventional logistics in the Agile Flag exercise, and in the REFORPAC exercise in August 2025 an aircraft in Hawaii was operated remotely from Guam, nearly 4,000 miles away, according to Joby’s announcement. "AFWERX is supporting the development and evaluation of autonomous airlift technologies to strengthen Air Force logistics resilience," Kate Brown, contested logistics tactical airlift lead at AFWERX, said in Joby’s announcement. "Our goal is to sustain cargo operations in contested environments while reducing risk to aircrews."
The Dayton stake is real but specific. Joby is California-based, AFWERX contracting is rooted at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and Joby operates Ohio manufacturing, including an agreement in January 2026 to acquire a second Dayton-area facility of more than 700,000 square feet in Vandalia, according to Joby’s releases. The company has also announced a planned acquisition of Dayton-based defense firm Resonant Sciences for about $500 million, expected to close in early to the first half of 2027, according to Joby and Flying magazine’s reporting. The November 4 announcement does not tie the $37 million to specific Dayton jobs, and a contract ceiling is a cap, not a guaranteed payout.
What happens next is follow-on work in Pacific military exercises, plus design updates and safety reviews to extend the autonomy system’s capabilities, according to Joby’s announcement. Locally, the developments to watch are the Resonant Sciences closing in 2027 and Joby’s expanded Dayton-area manufacturing footprint as the company works toward building four aircraft a month in 2027.