Red Cat Closes Acquisition of Apium Swarm Robotics to Accelerate Swarm Autonomy

Overview

• Red Cat said it acquired Apium Swarm Robotics, a California firm that builds distributed control for autonomous swarms of drones and uncrewed surface vessels.
• Apium will operate as an independent Red Cat company and will scale its multi‑agent autonomy stack for Red Cat’s Family of Systems.
• Apium’s software lets many robots coordinate and adapt without constant operator input, which supports missions when GPS or communications are denied.
• Red Cat plans to embed Apium’s autonomy layer in its Black Widow reconnaissance drone fielded by the U.S. Army under the Short Range Reconnaissance program, with the company saying swarming could boost coordination, survivability, and flexibility.
• The two companies worked together in 2025 and ran multi‑agent demos at an Army industry event and Red Cat’s Innovation Day in February 2026, setting up the deal.