Joby Aviation plans to acquire Resonant Sciences for about $500 million in cash and stock, deepening its push into defense while giving the electric air-taxi developer a revenue-generating business with more than $100 million in trailing 12-month revenue and access to classified U.S. government programs. The deal, expected to close in the first half of 2027 and funded with about $450 million in cash and $50 million in common stock, would make Ohio-based Resonant Joby's dedicated defense division under co-founder and CEO J. Micah North, absorbing Joby's turbine-electric, hydrogen-electric and autonomy programs while the rest of the company focuses on certifying, manufacturing and launching its commercial eVTOL aircraft. The move builds on Joby's broader defense expansion, including work with L3Harris Technologies on a gas-turbine hybrid VTOL aircraft based on its S4 platform and a 2024 government-contract demonstration of a hydrogen-electric hybrid aircraft that flew 521 miles. It also fits a wider Joby strategy of using acquisitions to add nearer-term revenue as commercial aircraft certification remains costly and slow; last year the company bought Blade Air Mobility's helicopter rideshare business for about $125 million, and Blade contributed $36.2 million of Joby's $38.6 million in second-quarter revenue.