Joby’s Resonant Sciences acquisition is a proposed $500 million deal that would pull a Dayton, Ohio, defense supplier into the electric-aircraft maker just as its military ambitions extend beyond flight testing. The Verge reported that Joby expects the transaction to close in early 2027, paying $450 million in cash and $50 million in equity.
If it closes, Resonant would retain its existing work as Joby’s dedicated defense division, according to The Verge. Joby’s commercial group would continue pursuing air-taxi operations. That division matters: this is an announced acquisition, not a completed one, and it is separate from Toyota’s 2024 plan to invest an additional $500 million in Joby for air-taxi certification and production.
What does the Joby Resonant Sciences acquisition add?
Resonant develops aircraft systems for sensing, communications and operation in difficult environments, including combat zones, The Verge reported. Its work includes sensors, antennas and signal processing used to gather information, maintain secure communications and resist interference. The company also has low-observability expertise, technology intended to make an aircraft harder to detect.
The Verge reported that Resonant was founded in 2015, employs about 250 people and has products qualified on more than 20 commercial and defense aircraft. Many of its staff hold military clearances because of the classified work involved, the publication said.
Joby says it wants to combine its propulsion and autonomy work with Resonant’s radio-frequency, sensing and mission systems. The company’s stated aim is to design and build stealth aircraft using those capabilities. That remains a plan, rather than evidence of an operating stealth-aircraft program.
How does the deal fit Joby’s defense work?
Joby has worked with U.S. defense agencies for years. In 2022, the company said the U.S. Air Force expanded its Agility Prime contract by more than $45 million, bringing its potential value above $75 million. Joby said the expansion added Marine Corps participation in government-directed flight tests and exploration of possible uses including resupply, personnel movement and emergency medical response.
Those arrangements were mainly about testing Joby’s aircraft and assessing possible operations. Buying Resonant would put mission hardware and specialized defense engineering inside the company, rather than leaving Joby focused only on the aircraft platform.
Joby has also pursued a separate defense effort with L3Harris. The companies said in August 2025 that they were exploring a gas-turbine-hybrid VTOL aircraft for low-altitude missions that could be piloted or autonomous. They expected flight tests and planned government-exercise demonstrations, but those were forward-looking company statements.
The proposed Resonant purchase therefore broadens Joby’s defense bet from government evaluation of an electric aircraft to ownership of systems used to sense, communicate and contend with interference. Whether the deal closes, and whether it produces the stealth aircraft Joby describes, remains unresolved.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.
