Shares of Ondas Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:ONDS) are soaring Thursday after the autonomous drone infrastructure company said it placed a significant purchase order.

What To Know: Ondas announced that it placed its initial order of 500 WÃ¥sp drones from Rift Dynamics, a Norwegian drone company, to launch U.S. defense market distribution through its American Robotics subsidiary.

The WÃ¥sp is combat-ready drone designed to meet growing demand from the U.S.’s recently renamed Department of War (DOW), previously called the Department of Defense, for “mass affordable” strike and perimeter defense platforms.

“Demand from the U.S. Department of War and allied defense forces for mass-affordable attritable platforms is accelerating, and the WÃ¥sp is engineered to meet that requirement,” Ondas CEO Eric Brock said.

“Leveraging Rift’s NDAA-compliant design and Kitron proven global manufacturing expertise, Ondas is able [to] rapidly scale production and deliver thousands of units per month.”

Kitron, a defense manufacturer based in the U.S., will be in charge of producing the initial 500 drones. The total will eventually scale to more than 20,000 units per month within six months. Ondas is actively pursuing contracts with the DOW and said it expects to receive its initial deliveries of WÃ¥sp systems in the fourth quarter of 2025.

“We are thrilled Rift Dynamics has chosen Kitron as a manufacturing partner to support its growth and we are well positioned to meet that demand,” said Gary Tarallo, Kitron’s managing director of US Operations.

ONDS Price Action: Ondas shares were up 25.65% at $9.18 at the time of publication on Thursday, according to Benzinga Pro. Ondas stock is making new 52-week highs on Thursday.

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