First Breach is developing a proprietary flight controller with Hellbender as it moves towards US-made drone electronics and planned production scaling in 2027.
First Breach has completed the first untethered flight of its proprietary drone prototype, marking progress towards a domestically manufactured flight-control electronics stack. The flight validated the airframe, propulsion, and core vehicle systems, but used commercial flight electronics.
The US defence technology company is developing its own proprietary flight controller under a strategic agreement with Hellbender. The controller board is now operating with Betaflight, an open-source flight-control firmware. Integration of the controller into the aircraft will be the next development step, followed by combined-system testing.
“Untethered flight is the point where a drone stops being a test article and starts being a vehicle. Every step we take on this program is a step toward owning the full stack, meaning the airframe, the electronics, and the manufacturing, here in the United States. This flight is a visible marker of that progress,” said Jeffrey Low, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, First Breach.
The Hellbender partnership covers engineering, design, technical support, and component manufacturing, including electronics design, PCB assembly, sensor integration, prototyping, and production testing.
First Breach is targeting initial prototype completion in Q4 2026 and production scaling in Q2 2027, with planned capacity exceeding 2,500 drones per week, subject to development, testing, and manufacturing readiness.
The four-rotor Class 1 prototype weighs about 2.2 kg, carries roughly 500 g, and has a demonstrated 2 km range and approximately 10-minute endurance. It uses GNSS with visual-inertial augmentation, a 900 MHz MAVLink control link, and swappable LiPo batteries.
