Firestorm Labs has raised $82 million in a Series A round to scale production of mobile, containerised drone factories built to deploy to forward operating bases.

The round was led by New Enterprise Associates, with participation from Lockheed Martin Ventures and Booz Allen Hamilton. The San Diego start-up, founded in 2022, has now raised about $98 million in total.

Firestorm builds 20-foot shipping containers that arrive on a flatbed and unfold into a working production line. Each unit can print, assemble, and launch small unmanned aerial systems on site, the company said.

The pitch is logistical, not technological. Drones in modern combat are consumed at industrial rates, and shipping replacements from US factories takes weeks. A unit at the front edge can produce hundreds of airframes per day from local power and 3D-printer feedstock.

Firestorm has shipped one unit to a US Department of Defense customer for evaluation, according to its filings, and signed a development contract with the Air Force in late 2025.

The funding lands in a year where venture investment in defence-tech has accelerated. Anduril, Shield AI, and Skydio have all raised growth-stage rounds in the past twelve months as US and allied governments restock drone inventories drawn down by exports to Ukraine.

"We are not selling drones — we are selling the capacity to make drones, anywhere," chief executive Ian Muceus said in a statement. The company plans to ship 12 units in 2026 and grow headcount from 95 to about 160.

The round closes ahead of the Pentagon's Replicator initiative, a multi-year programme to field thousands of attritable autonomous systems. Firestorm has not disclosed whether it has been selected as a Replicator vendor, but said funding announcements from prime contractors are expected this quarter.