Heven AeroTech has been awarded a US Army Basic Ordering Agreement that opens the door for any Army unit to procure its hydrogen-powered Z1 long-endurance drone through a simplified contract vehicle — the latest step in the Pentagon's push to industrialise alternative-fuel UAS.
The Agreement
The BOA was issued by US Army Contracting Command at Redstone Arsenal under the UAS Project Office. It establishes a pre-negotiated framework that lets units acquire Z1 aircraft and the supporting hydrogen-generation hardware without running a full new solicitation each time. The vehicle was enabled by Heven's prior qualification under the Blue UAS Select list.
Why Hydrogen
The Z1 swaps lithium-ion batteries for a fuel cell that converts hydrogen into electricity, delivering more than four times the energy of a comparable battery system. That translates into more than 10 hours of endurance and a range of up to 460 miles — well beyond standard tactical quadcopters and squarely in the long-range ISR envelope.
Pentagon's Hydrogen Pivot
The BOA aligns with the administration's Executive Order on "Unleashing American Drone Dominance" and joins other recent Pentagon counter-drone and UAS deals, including Perennial Autonomy's $500M Pentagon counter-drone contract, XTEND's Asia-Pacific Scorpio deal and the US Army's $117M P550 reconnaissance buy from AeroVironment.
Reporting based on coverage from PR Newswire, UAS Magazine, The Defense Post, DRONELIFE and ExecutiveBiz.