Press Release Details

SALT LAKE CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr. 1, 2026-- Palladyne AI (NASDAQ: PDYN), a U.S.-based defense and industrial technology company commercializing embedded AI, collaborative autonomy, and advanced avionics for defense markets, today announced it has been invited to participate in Northern Strike 26-2, a premier U.S. Department of War joint exercise, where the company will execute a high-impact validation exercise of its next-generation swarm autonomy platform, further solidifying its position in the rapidly expanding autonomous defense market.

Hosted August 2-14, 2026, at the National All-Domain Warfighting Center (NADWC), Northern Strike is a Joint National Training Capability (JNTC)-accredited exercise involving more than 9,000 participants operating across contested, multi-domain environments. The exercise serves as a critical validation environment for emerging technologies and a gateway for transition into operational programs of record. NADWC Camp Grayling was selected as the Drone Dominance Range in the recently enacted National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

This warfighter validation and exercise will feature Palladyne’s Gremlin-X™ mini bomber UAV operating alongside additional unmanned aerial systems. The exercise will showcase at least three UAV OEM partners, all operating fully autonomous collaboration using SwarmOS within a unified Decentralized Embodied Collaborative Autonomy (DECA) framework. Palladyne AI will conduct the exercise on a single Android Team Awareness Kit (ATAK) managing four UAVs. This multi-platform integration highlights Palladyne’s ability to deliver true cross-OEM interoperability, autonomy, and collaboration without requiring centralized orchestration, one of the most critical and unsolved challenges in modern defense systems.

Key capabilities to be demonstrated include cross-platform swarm collaboration across multiple UAV classes and manufacturers, decentralized decision-making at the edge that is resilient to denied or degraded communications, real-time mission adaptation across dynamic battlefield conditions, and single-interface command and control enabling rapid deployment with reduced operator burden.

“This is not a lab demonstration,” said Doug Dynes, President of Palladyne Aerospace and Defense. “This is live, operational validation in one of the most demanding training environments in the world. We are proving that autonomous systems from different manufacturers can operate as a cohesive, intelligent strike and sensing force without reliance on centralized command and control, which is vulnerable in degraded communications environments. That is the future of warfare, and Palladyne AI intends to lead it.”

The inclusion of Gremlin-X as a lightweight, deployable mini-bomber strike platform with IntelliSwarm underscores Palladyne’s vertically integrated approach, combining proprietary hardware with a scalable autonomy stack capable of transforming compatible systems into part of a coordinated swarm. This demonstration reinforces Palladyne’s strategy of unifying proprietary, cognitive autonomy software with platform-agnostic hardware integration to scale rapidly across defense and allied markets.

For investors, Northern Strike represents a significant inflection point, including operational validation in a DoW sponsored environment, direct engagement with military end-users and acquisition stakeholders, and a clear pathway toward contracts, strategic partnerships, and potential programs of record.

As global defense priorities shift toward autonomous, distributed, and cost-effective force multipliers, Palladyne AI is strategically positioned to capture a meaningful share of a rapidly expanding market opportunity. For more information, please visit https://www.palladyneai.com.

About Palladyne AI

Palladyne AI is a U.S.-based technology company developing patented embodied artificial intelligence, collaborative autonomy solutions, advanced avionics, autonomous systems, advanced UAV engineering services, and precision-manufactured components for defense and industrial markets. Palladyne AI delivers secure, American-developed and operated platforms designed to meet the stringent requirements of U.S. government and public-sector customers, including data sovereignty, security, and compliance.

Palladyne AI’s embodied AI is designed to operate in complex, contested, and high-risk environments, enabling distributed tasking, human-on-the-loop decision-making, degraded-communications resilience, and multi-domain coordination. Its platform-agnostic autonomy stack combines real-time sensor fusion, adaptive AI models, and edge-native orchestration to support autonomous and collaborative systems across air, ground, maritime, and industrial domains where performance, resilience, and trust are paramount. For more information about Palladyne AI, including GuideTech and Palladyne Defense, please visit www.palladyneai.com.

Palladyne Defense

Palladyne Defense is Palladyne AI’s division positioned as a mid-tier U.S. technology prime defense contractor. Palladyne Defense bridges innovative autonomy, practical engineering, and American production to bring intelligent systems into active service—faster, safer, and more cost-effectively than legacy approaches. With U.S.-based manufacturing, Palladyne Defense delivers software, components, subsystems, and complete loitering munition systems aligned with the Department of War’s growing demand for cost-effective, rapidly deployable, and domestically produced defense technologies.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Generally, statements that are not historical facts, including statements concerning possible or assumed future actions, business strategies, events, or results of operations, are forward-looking statements. These statements may be preceded by, followed by, or include the words “believes,” “estimates,” “expects,” “projects,” “forecasts,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “seeks,” “plans,” “scheduled,” “anticipates,” “intends” or “continue” or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual events, results, or performance to differ materially from those indicated by such statements. These forward-looking statements are based on Palladyne AI’s management’s current expectations and beliefs, as well as a number of assumptions concerning future events. However, there can be no assurance that the events, results, or trends identified in these forward-looking statements will occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and Palladyne AI is not under any obligation and expressly disclaims any obligation, to update, alter or otherwise revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by law.

Readers should carefully review the statements set forth in the reports which Palladyne AI has filed or will file from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), in particular the risks and uncertainties set forth in the sections of those reports entitled “Risk Factors” and “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements,” for a description of risks facing Palladyne AI and that could cause actual events, results or performance to differ from those indicated in the forward-looking statements contained herein. The documents filed by Palladyne AI with the SEC may be obtained free of charge at the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260401395778/en/

Palladyne AI Investor Contact:
Brian S. Siegel, IRC®, M.B.A.
Senior Managing Director
Hayden IR - Chicago
(346) 396-8696 (o)
brian@haydenir.com
IR@palladyneai.com

Palladyne AI Press Contact:
Heath Meyer
(858) 768-1527
PR@palladyneai.com

Source: Palladyne AI