Firestorm Labs and Orqa team up to mass-produce NDAA‑compliant Squall FPV drones for U.S. defense

Firestorm Labs and Slovenia‑based Orqa formalized a manufacturing partnership to expand production of the Squall, a Group 1 FPV quadcopter built from NDAA‑compliant parts for U.S. defense customers. Orqa brings vertically integrated design and a non‑Chinese component strategy; Firestorm provides containerized, rapid‑turn manufacturing and in‑theater assembly know‑how intended to shorten logistics tails. The firms presented current throughput targets in the hundreds of thousands of units annually (Orqa cites ~280,000 per year) and described a roadmap to push capacity toward a much higher ceiling through additional manufacturing partners. The announcement complements wider industry movement toward making FPV systems more readily fieldable — examples include bundled deliveries that pair airframes with instructor‑led training and sustainment familiarization, and recent purchase orders for components and partially assembled systems that indicate immediate manufacturing cadence. A DCMA compliance listing for an airframe in the sector was also noted in recent disclosures; such listings can help accelerate procurement by signalling established supply‑chain and quality processes. The partners characterized the arrangement as responsive to battlefield demand for resilient, domestically aligned platforms and emphasized shared platform refinement, modular parts ecosystems and faster sustainment cycles enabled by local production nodes. For acquisition authorities, the combination of production scale, compliance signalling and proximity manufacturing could materially reduce time‑to‑field for replacement units — provided milestone‑driven validation is achieved. Execution risks remain: certification and compliance regimes, export controls, component availability, cross‑site quality control, cybersecurity and interoperability with DoD systems could slow transition from commercial demonstrations to repeatable production lines. The broader market is trending toward packaging hardware with certifiable software, training and sustainment services; suppliers that can demonstrate auditable quality controls and instructor‑led fielding will be advantaged in procurement competitions. Commercially, Firestorm and Orqa stand to capture dual‑use demand where sovereign sourcing and rapid replenishment factor heavily, but realizing upper‑end production targets will require capital, workforce scaling and verified contract wins.