Firestorm Labs

Firestorm Labs builds drones where they are needed rather than shipping them across contested supply lines. Founded in San Diego in 2022 by Dan Magy — who previously founded and exited the counter-drone firm Citadel Defense — the company’s central product is xCell, a containerised 3D-printing “microfactory” that runs off-grid, can be airlifted by a C-17 or sling-loaded under a CH-47 helicopter, and prints modular uncrewed aircraft in under a day at the point of need.

The aircraft it produces is Tempest, a modular system configurable for surveillance or electronic warfare, with a smaller additively-manufactured FPV platform called Squall for rapid deployment. The approach reframes drone supply as a manufacturing problem rather than a logistics one: instead of stockpiling and transporting finished airframes, an expeditionary unit can fabricate and reconfigure them on site.

The US Air Force backed the model with a five-year, $100 million indefinite-delivery contract awarded in January 2025, integrating the systems through AFWERX and the Air Force Research Laboratory and covering Group 1 to 3 drones and next-generation autonomy. By early 2026 around $27 million had been obligated against that ceiling, with xCell units fielded at the Air Force Research Laboratory in Rome, New York and with Air Force Special Operations Command in Florida.

Investors have put roughly $153 million into the company across three rounds. A $12.5 million seed in 2024 was followed by a $47 million Series A in July 2025 led by New Enterprise Associates, with backing from Lockheed Martin Ventures, Booz Allen Ventures and others, and an $82 million Series B in April 2026 led by Washington Harbour Partners, joined by In-Q-Tel and the earlier investors. The point-of-need manufacturing thesis puts Firestorm in the same expeditionary-production conversation as larger venture-backed defence firms such as Anduril , but built around the printer rather than the airframe.