Pentagon Commits $850 Million in Loans to Drone, Radar and Battery Makers in Four Days

Economic Warfare & Trade Policy › Industrial policy

In four days, the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital announced $850 million in conditional loan commitments to three U.S. manufacturers. Drone maker Neros, space-radar company LeoLabs and Massachusetts battery-materials firm 6K were the recipients, with announcements from Nov. 2 through Nov. 5, 2026. All three are aimed at moving critical defense supply chains away from foreign suppliers.

The Office of Strategic Capital (OSC) lends rather than buys weapons. Each commitment is conditional: before any money is disbursed, the companies must still meet financial, legal, technical and due-diligence requirements, according to the Department of War’s release on 6K and its release on LeoLabs.

By the numbers: $850 million in Pentagon loans

Neros has the largest commitment, up to $450 million, or 53% of the three-loan total by TBR calculation. The Torrance, California, company says it will add $165 million in equity, for a $615 million project, according to Neros. 6K’s $250 million commitment is expected to bring in another $250 million in private capital, the department said. LeoLabs’ $150 million is matched dollar-for-dollar, for a $300 million capital infusion. Added together, the three projects total about $1.415 billion, of which the Pentagon loans make up about 60% (TBR calculations from the company and department figures).

Neros: drones and the parts inside them

The Neros loan would pay for small drone platforms, ground control systems and components including motors, radios, flight electronics, sensors, batteries and thermal sensors, the Pentagon said, according to Military.com. Marines have trained on the company’s Archer first-person-view drone at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

“This capital would put Neros on the path to one million drones per year by 2028, and accelerate America toward drone dominance on a global scale,” CEO and co-founder Soren Monroe-Anderson said in the company’s announcement. OSC director David A. Lorch said Neros “has already demonstrated an ability to design, manufacture, and deliver exceptional small unmanned aircraft systems.” The production target comes from the company and has not been independently verified.

6K and LeoLabs: battery materials and orbit tracking

6K is based in North Andover, Massachusetts. Its loan would expand production of nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) cathode active material at its PlusCAM plant in Jackson, Tennessee. The company uses a microwave-plasma process that the department says skips the foreign-dominated precursor stage and cuts production cycle times by up to tenfold. “Due to price flooding from foreign countries, the U.S. produces less than 1% of its NMC cathode needs domestically,” the department said. CEO Saurabh Ullal said the plant would support “over 200 high-quality jobs,” according to 6K’s release.

The loan also revives a project that stalled. A $50 million Energy Department grant to 6K from 2023 was canceled by the Trump administration, forcing the company to reapply, and the factory had originally been slated to open in 2024, TechCrunch reported. 6K said the financing also depends on government authorizations and “the availability of appropriations.” It’s the latest Massachusetts link to Pentagon industrial funding, after Boston defense startup Corridian’s $38 million raise.

LeoLabs’ commitment would scale production of phased-array radars, including mobile “Scout” units, that track objects in orbit. The department describes LeoLabs as the only commercially available U.S. provider of ground-based radar space domain awareness. “OSC’s investment in LeoLabs will help ensure we maintain persistent custody of the objects that matter most,” said Jordan B. Sebold, a senior managing director at OSC.

Shipping records and what’s still pending

The Boston Report checked the ImportGenius customs database for the three borrowers. It shows one U.S. import record for 6K Inc., LLC at the company’s Commerce Way address (listed as Andover): a Nov. 27, 2023, shipment of 750 kilograms of silicon-carbide heaters, rollers and saggers, which are kiln equipment, from Japan’s Noritake Co. These are declared shipping records only. They show no wrongdoing and say nothing about the new loan. The free pages we could reach showed no usable records for Neros or LeoLabs. That is not evidence that no shipments exist.

None of the three loans has closed. Their outcome will help show whether Department of Defense lending can turn early-stage hardware companies into high-volume suppliers. For more coverage of defense spending, see our military hub.

Sources

• U.S. Department of War: OSC signs $250 million conditional loan commitment with 6K Inc. (Nov. 5, 2026)
• U.S. Department of War: OSC signs $150 million conditional loan commitment with LeoLabs (Nov. 4, 2026)
• Neros: $450M conditional loan commitment (Nov. 2, 2026)
• Military.com: Pentagon loans $450 million to Neros (Nov. 5, 2026)
• 6K press release (Nov. 5, 2026)
• TechCrunch: Pentagon offers battery startup 6K $250M loan (Nov. 6, 2026)
• ImportGenius: 6K Inc., LLC shipment records