Fishers-based Pierce Aerospace lands $10M federal contract for drone tech

Aaron Pierce

Fishers-based Pierce Aerospace has landed a $10 million contract for its drone remote identification technology—a contract that the company says could pave the way for future growth opportunities.

Founded in 2016, Pierce Aerospace has developed technology that allows government and commercial users to detect, track and identify drones. The company currently has 15 employees, most of whom live in central Indiana.

Pierce Aerospace won the business as a subcontractor to Amentum, a Virginia-based government contractor with more than 53,000 worldwide employees. Under this subcontract, Pierce Aerospace will deploy its technology to a variety of locations, departments and agencies that fall under the Department of Homeland Security.

This is not the first government award that Pierce Aerospace has secured—the company has received several previous awards, including contracts with the U.S. Air Force and as a participant in the Small Business Administration’s Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs. These programs, collectively known as “America’s Seed Fund,” provide federal funding for tech-focused small businesses.

But the Amentum subcontract—also part of the SBIR program—is significantly larger than those previous awards, said Aaron Pierce, one of Pierce Aviation’s four cofounders: “It’s a very big deal.”

Working with the Department of Homeland Security is also significant, Pierce said, because that department is made up of many different entities, including the U.S. Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Transportation Security Administration and others.

“We obviously see this as an opportunity to get our technology into the hands of more of those federal end users,” Pierce said.

In recent years, Pierce Aerospace has attracted notice from other quarters as well.

In 2024, the company was named Tech Innovation Team of the Year in TechPoint’s Mira Awards, which honor achievements in Indiana’s tech industry.

Pierce Aerospace was also involved with the 2023 Super Bowl, testing its remote identification beacons by attaching the devices to all the federal and commercial aircraft protecting the stadium’s airspace during that event.

Also in 2023, Pierce was named as one of IBJ’s Forty Under 40 honorees.