Merlin Completes C-130J Design Review and Autonomous Landing

The Tip Desk · August 13, 2026 · 3 min read

Second-quarter revenue was $2.2 million as the company posted a $58.4 million GAAP net loss.

Merlin, Inc. (MRLN), an aerospace and defense technology company building the operating system of record for autonomous flight, completed the Critical Design Review for its USSOCOM C-130J autonomy program on June 4, 2026, and said the next phase is to integrate the system onto an aircraft and begin ground testing.

The milestone moved the C-130J work closer to deployment across USSOCOM’s C-130J fleet. The second-quarter release said the program has $100 million or more in total IDIQ contract ceiling value.

On July 17, Merlin executed the first fully autonomous landing at the EAA AirVenture Oshkosh airport using a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan. Civil certification also advanced: the company achieved Stage of Involvement 3 with the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority, in coordination with the FAA under a Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement, and concluded a CAANZ certification issue paper on AI/ML-based natural language processing in Merlin Pilot. The first-quarter release had said SOI 1 and SOI 2 were complete and that the company was targeting the first certified, fully automated takeoff-to-touchdown flight.

Merlin and Israel Aerospace Industries signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding to advance AI-powered autonomy for Part 25 commercial cargo aircraft, with a phased path toward platform integration, civil certification, and commercialization. The collaboration positions its technology to address the approximately 2,400-aircraft global civil cargo market identified in Airbus’s 2025 Cargo Global Market Forecast, excluding China and Russia.

Second-quarter 2026 total revenue was $2.2 million, compared with $1.0 million in the first quarter of 2026. GAAP net loss narrowed to $58.4 million from $90.4 million in the first quarter. Adjusted EBITDA loss widened to $27.8 million from $23.3 million.

For the three months ended June 30, 2026, revenue was $2.194 million versus $3.107 million a year earlier. Gross profit was a $119 thousand loss, versus $41 thousand of gross profit in the year-ago quarter. Research and development expense was $16.387 million, and general and administrative expense was $15.576 million. Loss from operations was $33.537 million.

Cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments were $183.9 million at June 30, 2026, compared with $123.1 million at March 31, 2026. The company ended the quarter with no debt. Cash and cash equivalents were $183.55 million and short-term investments were $321 thousand at June 30. Long-term debt, current and non-current, and convertible promissory notes that had been on the December 31, 2025 balance sheet were zero at June 30, 2026.

Chief Executive Officer Matt George said the milestones tackle independent challenges across commercial, technology, and certification, and that the company is building what it believes will be the operating system of record for the next century of aviation. Merlin Pilot has been proven through hundreds of autonomous flights from test facilities across the globe.

The first-quarter release introduced Condor, Merlin’s first product family, bringing Merlin Pilot to large, multi-crew aircraft for civil and defense missions, and described a non-binding memorandum of understanding with World Star Aviation Limited to advance Condor’s commercial development. The second-quarter release did not restate Condor commercial terms.