Vantage Robotics is a Bay Area maker of small, US-built ISR and public-safety drones. Its two current platforms — the 153-gram Trace and the 710-gram Vesper — are sold almost entirely as mission bundles rather than as bare aircraft, and the company itself publishes no prices. Everything below was read on 12 August 2026 from live US dealer storefronts, all in USD with working checkout listings.
The two aircraft
Per Vantage's own spec pages, Trace is a 153 g takeoff-weight folding quadcopter: 36 minutes of flight, 6 km line-of-sight link, a 48 MP EO camera and a 320×240 uncooled thermal sensor upgradeable to 640×480. It is described as NDAA compliant with Blue UAS status "pending."
Vesper is the larger aircraft — 710 g airframe, 55 minutes on the Recon rotor assembly (32 minutes shrouded), a 45 km airframe range figure, dual 4K Sony IMX334 sensors and 48× combined zoom. Vesper is listed as Blue UAS Cleared, NDAA and TAA compliant, with an Air Force ATO. That difference matters more than any line on the price list: the two aircraft are not interchangeable on a federally funded procurement.
Aircraft-only prices, and why you rarely see them
Only Vesper is sold as a bare aircraft:
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Vesper UAV (2.4 GHz) | **$6,900** |
| Vesper UAV (Multi-Band) | **$8,490** |
Both include the Recon rotor assembly, a stabilised EO/IR gimbal and the radio. There is no bare-airframe Trace SKU anywhere in the dealer catalogue we read — the cheapest way into a Trace is the $11,999 Inspection bundle.
The frequency-agile radio costs $1,590 (+23.0%) on the bare aircraft. Buy the same upgrade inside a bundle and it costs less: the Multi-Band ISR bundle is $1,145 over the 2.4 GHz ISR bundle, and the Pro versions differ by $1,188. Same radio, three different prices depending on what it is bolted to.
The bundle ladder
| Bundle (2.4 GHz) | Trace | Vesper |
|---|---|---|
| Inspection | $11,999 | — |
| Public Safety | $12,599 | $13,699 |
| ISR | $12,899 | $13,999 |
| Inspection Pro | $13,999 | — |
| Public Safety Pro | $17,250 | $19,985 |
| ISR Pro | $17,799 | $19,199 |
| ISR (Multi-Band) | — | $15,144 |
| ISR Pro (Multi-Band) | — | $20,387 |
A bundle is the aircraft plus the Vision2 ground control station, radio module, hand grips, field case, transport case, batteries, charger and a field repair bag. On the Vesper that packaging is expensive: $6,900 bare to $13,699 in the Public Safety bundle is +98.5% — the accessories cost as much as the aircraft.
What "Pro" is actually buying
Pro configurations change two things: the thermal sensor goes from 320p to 640p, and standard batteries become endurance batteries. Both batteries are separately priced in the same catalogue (Trace $250 → $400; Vesper $400 → $600), so the sensor upgrade can be backed out:
- Vesper ISR → ISR Pro: +$5,200, of which the battery change accounts for $1,000 → ~$4,200 for the 640p gimbal
- Trace ISR → ISR Pro: +$4,900, of which batteries account for $450 → ~$4,450
Two independent lines land within $250 of each other. Doubling thermal resolution costs roughly $4,200–$4,450 — about 61% of the price of the whole Vesper aircraft. This is our arithmetic on the dealer's published inclusion lists, not a Vantage price.
Two-packs are the only real discount
| Two-pack | Price | Two singles | Saving |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trace Public Safety ×2 | $21,499 | $25,198 | −14.7% |
| Trace ISR ×2 | $22,799 | $25,798 | −11.6% |
| Vesper Public Safety ×2 | $22,919 | $27,398 | −16.3% |
| Vesper ISR ×2 | $23,940 | $27,998 | −14.5% |
The two-packs share one ground station, which is where the saving comes from. Nothing else in the catalogue is discounted.
Accessories, and the one that costs more than the drone
Spares are cheap: Trace propeller guards $150, Vesper spare propeller set $160, Trace batteries $250/$400, Vesper batteries $400/$600.
Then there is the Vesper V-Line Pro Tether Assembly at $17,500 — ground-sourced power for persistent flight. That is 2.54× the aircraft it powers and 128% of the complete Public Safety bundle. Persistent overwatch is not a Vesper accessory; it is a second purchase larger than the first, a pattern we also found in tethered drone systems.
Dealer agreement is unusually tight
The Trace Public Safety bundle is listed at exactly $12,599 by four separate US dealers, and Vesper Public Safety at $13,699 by two. After weeks of finding 30–70% spreads on the same machine across dealers, Vantage looks like a brand with an enforced US list. One caveat: at one of those dealers every Vantage SKU was out of stock on the day we read it, and an out-of-stock price is a claim, not a quote.
Who should buy which
Buy Trace if the mission is indoor, confined or covert and 153 g matters — but confirm current Blue UAS status in writing, because Vantage's own page says pending. Buy Vesper if the procurement requires Blue UAS clearance today, or if you need 55-minute endurance. Budget the Pro step only if 640p thermal genuinely changes your detection range; at ~$4,300 it is the single most expensive option in the line short of the tether.
Related reading: our industrial drone category, the Blue UAS and NDAA compliance price guide, and the inspection robot category.
*Prices read 12 August 2026 from live US dealer storefronts (USD confirmed via store cart endpoints); specifications from vantagerobotics.com the same day. Single-day observations; bundle contents are as described by the dealer, not by the manufacturer.*
