Joby Aviation agrees to buy defense firm Resonant Sciences for $500 million

Joby Aviation, Inc. (NYSE: JOBY) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Resonant Sciences, a defense technology company based in Dayton, Ohio, for approximately US$500 million.

The purchase is intended to expand Joby's defense business. Resonant Sciences is described as a growing, EBITDA-positive operation supporting active US national security programs, and it brings classified infrastructure, qualified products, established production operations, existing customer relationships and an experienced technical team. Joby has framed the combination as a way to pair the two companies' aerospace engineering capabilities, build a larger defense platform, advance work on autonomy and widen the range of applications for its technology.

The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2027, subject to customary closing conditions including applicable regulatory reviews. Given the defense subject matter and the size of the deal, those reviews are likely to span several regulatory areas: the legal work supporting Joby covers government contracts, export controls, foreign direct investment screening, and antitrust clearance both inside and outside the United States.

For Santa Cruz County, the deal is a reminder of how quickly civil aviation ventures can pivot toward defense work, and of what that shift involves. Companies that take on national security programs inherit classified facility requirements, export control obligations and government contracting rules that reach down into their supply chains. Local machine shops, electronics builders and component suppliers that work with aerospace customers may find these requirements becoming part of ordinary business conversations rather than a specialist concern.

Joby is headquartered in Santa Cruz, and this is the second major out-of-state expansion it has announced this autumn alongside its North Texas manufacturing and testing site. For the county, the pattern is worth watching: the engineering base stays here while manufacturing, defence work and flight operations are built elsewhere.