IRVINE, Calif., July 30, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lantronix Inc. (NASDAQ:LTRX), a global provider of Edge AI and Industrial IoT solutions that power NDAA-compliant unmanned systems, critical infrastructure, and resilient enterprise networks, today announced a collaboration with Swarmer, Inc (NASDAQ:SWMR), a drone autonomy software company whose technology has supported more than 100,000 real-world combat missions in Ukraine since April 2024, to create a custom compute platform optimized for Group 1 UAS. Both companies are focused on accelerating deployment of FPV and other small, low-cost drones for Ukraine, U.S. and allied defense programs.

"Autonomy software only proves itself once it’s deployed on hardware that’s actually flying," said Saleel Awsare, president and CEO of Lantronix. "A production-ready NDAA-compliant Lantronix compute platform with Swarmer’s combat-proven software provides operators with roughly four times the processing power to optimize its visual navigation, automated target recognition, pixel lock and advanced teaming algorithms."

The integration of Lantronix's Open-Q™ 6490CS System-on-Module is designed to provide Group 1 UAS with the identical connectivity options along with a significant increase in onboard computing capability, enabling more advanced artificial intelligence, computer vision and autonomous mission execution at the tactical edge. The additional processing capacity will support more sophisticated swarming behaviors, sensor fusion and real-time decision-making while providing a production-ready platform designed for long-term deployment.

For military operators, this will result in the ability to field increasingly autonomous, software-defined Group 1 UAS that can adapt to evolving mission requirements through software updates rather than hardware replacement, extending operational capability while reducing lifecycle complexity.

"With more than seven million drones projected to be manufactured this year alone, we believe that every one of them could potentially run our AI and collaborative autonomy software," said Alex Fink, president and U.S. CEO of Swarmer. "Our collaboration with Lantronix will produce a compute platform that is capable of running AI models on the edge in a small form factor that is optimized for Group 1 UAS. We believe this will become the new industry standard compute solution for small unmanned systems, and every unit will arrive pre-populated with Swarmer OS and Swarmer’s cutting-edge autonomy."

Founded in Austin, Texas, in May 2023, Swarmer deployed its autonomy software in combat operations in Ukraine in April 2024 and has since flown missions with nearly 50 Ukrainian military units in active electronic warfare and GNSS-denied environments. Swarmer’s software is designed to run across any type of drone — from fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft to ground vehicles and sea vessels. The Swarmer solution based on Lantronix Open-Q™ 6490CS SOM will support all of these platforms, allowing a single operator to plan, monitor and execute missions involving hundreds of drones from one hardware base.

How Lantronix Technology Benefits Swarmer

The Open-Q™ 6490CS SOM enables Swarmer to deploy its autonomy software on a production-ready compute platform that improves performance, reduces cost and operational inefficiencies, optimizes SWaP and accelerates deployment across multiple unmanned platforms. On-device AI processing is built for GPS-denied and contested environments, where cloud-dependent compute isn’t reliable.

Sustained production support and NDAA compliance also eliminates supply chain uncertainty, enabling Swarmer to scale deployments across U.S. and allied government customers without hardware availability concerns.

Key Investor Takeaways

Expanded platform opportunity: Broadens Lantronix's role within autonomous defense systems by improving AI compute for multi-platform autonomy software across air, ground and maritime unmanned systems.

Replaces Soon-to-be Obsolete Technology: Current onboard compute systems are becoming increasingly expensive and unable to match pace with the speed of AI. This customized platform is designed to provide roughly four times the processing power to optimize visual navigation, automated target recognition, pixel lock and advanced teaming algorithms.

Long-term program support: NDAA compliance and a 10-year-plus production commitment position Lantronix for recurring, long-term revenue as Swarmer secures extended defense contracts, de-risking platform adoption in the defense autonomy market.

Validated, scaling partner: Swarmer (NASDAQ:SWMR) is a publicly traded, combat-proven operator with more than 100,000 missions flown across nearly 50 military units, reducing execution risk on the demand side of the partnership.

About Swarmer

Swarmer™ (NASDAQ:SWMR) is a defense technology company that specializes in vendor-agnostic software which allows one operator to intuitively control hundreds of autonomous platforms in real time. Swarmer’s primary mission areas include autonomous swarm coordination, integration of multi-domain unmanned systems and AI-powered autonomy software for distributed operations. Swarmer is not a drone manufacturer and does not depend on any single platform, supplier or hardware lifecycle. Instead, Swarmer operates at the intelligence layer, developing autonomy, coordination and decision-making software that enables large numbers of low-cost unmanned systems to operate collectively as one coherent, resilient force. Swarmer’s technology has been rigorously validated in real-world kinetic environments and was first deployed in combat operations in Ukraine in April 2024. Since then, it has completed more than 100,000 combat missions, generating terabytes of proprietary data that informs its machine-learning models and enables the replication of advanced pilot performance at scale. Swarmer’s routine use in combat missions generates continuous streams of telemetry, sensor data and operational feedback which are then used to refine performance, increase resilience and accelerate learning. Swarmer has headquarters in Austin, Texas, and maintains operations and teams in Ukraine, Poland and Estonia. For more information, visit www.getswarmer.com.

About Lantronix

Lantronix Inc. (NASDAQ:LTRX) is a global leader in Edge AI and Industrial IoT solutions, delivering intelligent computing, secure connectivity and remote management for mission-critical applications. Serving high-growth markets, including smart cities, enterprise IT and commercial and defense unmanned systems, including drones, Lantronix enables customers to optimize operations and accelerate digital transformation. Its comprehensive portfolio of hardware, software and services powers applications from secure video surveillance and intelligent utility infrastructure to resilient out-of-band network management. By bringing intelligence to the network edge, Lantronix helps organizations achieve efficiency, security and a competitive edge in today’s AI-driven world. For more information, visit the Lantronix website.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws, including, without limitation, statements concerning a potential collaboration between Lantronix and Swarmer and Lantronix’s positioning to capitalize on opportunities for long-term growth in the drone and defense technology markets. These forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations and are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results, future business, financial condition, or performance to differ materially from our historical results or those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statement contained in this news release. The potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, such factors as the effects of negative or worsening regional and worldwide economic conditions or market instability on our business, including effects on purchasing decisions by our customers; our ability to mitigate any disruption in our and our suppliers’ and vendors’ supply chains due to changes in U.S. or foreign government trade policies, including recently increased or future tariffs, a pandemic or other outbreaks, wars and recent conflicts in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, or other factors; future responses to and effects of public health crises; cybersecurity risks; changes in applicable U.S. and foreign government laws and regulations; the risk that no definitive agreement between Lantronix and Swarmer is reached; our ability to successfully implement our acquisitions strategy or integrate acquired companies; difficulties and costs of protecting patents and other proprietary rights; the level of our indebtedness, our ability to service our indebtedness and the restrictions in our debt agreements; and any additional factors included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2025, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on Aug. 29, 2025, including in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in Item 1A of Part I of that report, as well as in our other public filings with the SEC. Additional risk factors may be identified from time to time in our future filings. In addition, actual results may differ as a result of additional risks and uncertainties about which we are currently unaware or which we do not currently view as material to our business. For these reasons, investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements we make speak only as of the date on which they are made. We expressly disclaim any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statements after the date hereof to conform such statements to actual results or to changes in our opinions or expectations, except as required by applicable law or the rules of the Nasdaq Stock Market LLC. If we do update or correct any forward-looking statements, investors should not conclude that we will make additional updates or corrections.

Investor Contact (Lantronix):

Matt Glover and Greg Robles

Gateway Group, Inc.

LTRX@gateway-grp.com

Investor Contact (Swarmer):

SWMR@gateway-grp.com

Media Contact (Lantronix):

Diana Puckett

PRforLantronix@Bospar.com

Media Contact (Swarmer):

media@getswarmer.tech