Terra Drone Corporation was the only company, out of 38 applicants, to pass Japan's first interceptor-drone acquisition trial and sign a mass-production contract under the country's Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency. The agency picked four companies, Terra Drone included, to supply demonstration units for the trial; the other three were foreign manufacturers. Only Terra Drone's TerraB1 model passed testing, clearing the way for delivery to the Maritime Self-Defense Force.
The company is also formalizing its defense operations on the ground. A board meeting on September 14 approved a new wholly owned subsidiary, Terra Defense Japan, capitalized at ¥45mn and based in Tokyo, to handle sales, maintenance, logistics and technical partnerships for defense drones and related systems.
The milestone lands alongside widening losses. First-half revenue rose 15.1% year on year to ¥2.24bn, but the operating loss grew to ¥819mn from ¥681mn a year earlier, and the net loss attributable to shareholders expanded to ¥680mn from ¥394mn. Management left its full-year forecast unchanged, at revenue of ¥5.07bn and an operating loss of ¥1.66bn.
Terra Drone says it already has the cash to fund the push: a staged warrant program has raised ¥12.0bn of a planned ¥14.5bn, above the ¥6.5bn the company earmarked specifically for the defense business.