---
title: The Pentagon Is Lending a Drone Maker $820 Million Instead of Placing an Order
description: The Department of War's credit office has committed up to $820 million to Performance Drone Works under rules that bar loans to defense-only technology.
author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
updated: 2026-08-01T19:17:37.131Z
canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/pentagon-820-million-drone-component-loan
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/pdw-drone-factory-huntsville-79703.webp
categories: Politics
content_type: News
region: United States
publication: Sovereign Magazine
access: members
schema_type: Article
---

The Department of War has committed up to $820 million to a drone manufacturer, and none of it is a purchase order. PDW Holdings, the parent of Performance Drone Works, says the conditional commitment from the department's Office of Strategic Capital would pay to expand domestic production of the parts that go inside drones and robots: propulsion, power and control, and vision systems. The work would run through Drone Factory 01, the company's 90,000 square foot plant in Huntsville, Alabama, where engineering, flight test, systems integration, production and fulfillment sit under one roof. The loan has not closed.

Congress set up the office to lend rather than to buy, and the rules it lends by decide who can borrow.

## The Office May Only Lend Against Technology That Has a Civilian Use

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