A week after Cathie Wood stirred debate by buying the dip, Archer Aviation is already giving her something to stand on.

The company said Monday its electric powertrain will be used in Omen, the autonomous air vehicle being built by Anduril Industries and the UAE’s EDGE Group. It’s the same hardware that powers Archer’s Midnight air taxi… just headed into a very different type of aircraft.

It’s also the first time Archer’s powertrain will appear in someone else’s platform. And with commercial air taxis still tied up in regulatory timelines, getting its tech into defense programs gives Archer a quicker path to real revenue. Defense and logistics partners simply move faster.

And this isn’t a “maybe someday” project. The United Arab Emirates has already signed on to buy 50 Omen drones, giving the collaboration an actual production pipeline instead of a stack of press releases.

CEO Adam Goldstein has long said Midnight was never only about shuttling passengers across a city. He’s framed it as a foundation for electric aviation tech that could eventually live inside all kinds of aircraft… including military and autonomous systems. Omen is the first clear example of that idea showing up in the real world.

According to Anduril, Archer’s powertrain gave Omen the speed, range, and payload numbers necessary for defense missions. Engineers from both sides have been working together for months on a separate hybrid-electric aircraft concept, and that early cooperation is what ultimately led to Monday’s deal.

Investors liked the direction. Archer shares rose nearly 4% on Tuesday, adding to a recent stretch of good news. Last week, the company completed a Midnight test flight in the UAE and said Abu Dhabi could become the first market to operate its flying taxi commercially. Archer has also inked new agreements in South Korea and Japan as cities prepare for future electric aviation networks.

Meanwhile, Anduril (founded by Oculus creator Palmer Luckey) is expanding rapidly. The company recently raised $2.5 billion in a round led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, pushing its valuation past $30 billion.

For Archer, the Omen deal finally gives its technology a place to work while it waits for regulators to approve passenger flights… which could be awhile.

At the time of publishing this article, Stocks.News doesn’t hold positions in companies mentioned in the article.