AeroVironment has just revealed its latest heavy-duty medium uncrewed aircraft system known as the Jump 20-X. With an impressive range of capabilities, the drone could easily become a cornerstone of sea-based combat and surveillance.
AeroVironment (AV), an Arlington, Virginia, based manufacturer, is no stranger to creating cutting-edge unmanned military systems. Here at New Atlas, we've previously covered its quadrotor packable surveilance drone; its DARPA-funded Wasp unmanned aircraft system with "perch-and-stare" capabilities; and its Swtichblade suicide drones, hundreds of which have been sent to Ukraine to help the country fight its war against Russia. And that just scratches the surface of the company's output.
Adding to its impressive family of autonomous solutions, AV unveiled the Jump 20-X at the 2025 International Defence Exhibition & Conference in Abu Dhabi this week in what is, according to Breaking Defense, a bid to court Middle Eastern customers and development partners. The drone is meant to be launched from and collected by naval ships.
The drone stands out for several reasons, but perhaps mostly for the fact that it can run on a variety of fuels including gasoline or the so-called heavy fuels that power many warships. Once it's loaded up with a full tank, the Jump 20-X can fly for an impressive 13 hours, even when it's fully loaded with its 30-lb (about 14-kg) payload capacity.
According to AV, that payload can consist of a wide range of gear, which also makes the Jump 20-X an appealing choice.
"The Jump 20-X is built on an open-architecture, payload-agnostic, radio-agnostic, and STANAG-compliant framework, ensuring rapid integration with existing military networks and emerging technologies," says the company in a release about the drone. "This future-proof design enables seamless interoperability across joint, allied, and coalition forces, allowing operators to adapt to evolving mission requirements in real time." STANAG is an agreement used by organizations like NATO to standardized training and operations efforts.
The payload modules can satisfy a range of needs including the deployment of monitoring technology like synthetic aperture radar and wide-area surveillance; electronic warfare devices like jamming equipment; communications gear with video relay; and "precision strike capabilities with customizable lethality options," says the company.
The drone also has vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) capability, which allows it to use the upper decks of moving ships as its launch and landing pads, as you can see demonstrated in the following video.
The Jump 20-X has an operational range of 185 km (115 miles) which imbues it with beyond-line-of-sight (BLOS) capabilities. That's thanks, in part, to robust, onboard AI capabilities, which the company terms SPOTR-Edge.
"AV’s cutting-edge SPOTR-Edge™ computer vision technology enables automated object detection and classification, enhancing situational awareness and tactical decision-making in real-time," says AeroVironment. "From identifying hostile threats to tracking moving maritime and aerial assets, SPOTR-Edge™ provides unparalleled intelligence at the tactical edge."
Charles Dean, AV's vice president of international business told Breaking Defense that pre-orders for the Jump 20-X are now open as the drone goes through final testing. Order fulfillments are scheduled to begin in the next few months.
Source: AeroVironment
