The Air Force is getting its Skyborg wingman drone program underway, reaching out to industry for technology that could head to a future experimentation campaign. Multiple companies could each win $400 million to contribute technology toward a best-of-breed Skyborg drone, the service said in a ...
Drone pilots and their sensor operator partners are used to life in enclosed spaces. They sit side-by-side in ground control stations, or cockpits, that measure less than 200 square feet, but those close quarters make social distancing in the age of coronavirus a challenge. Still, ...
The Air Force’s plan to cut MQ-9 Reaper production and some air patrols in the fiscal 2021 budget request would negatively impact the ability to conduct operations and provide enough over watch in hotspots in the Middle East and Africa, the top officials responsible for ...
Lawmakers on Feb. 26 signaled a harsh fight ahead over the Pentagon's plans to retire aging aircraft and shift spending from weapons systems to border wall protection. The Defense Department’s total $705.4 billion fiscal 2021 request looks to retire dozens of USAF aircraft. Defense Secretary ...
A General Atomics official said the company is surprised by the Air Force’s plan to stop buying new MQ-9 Reapers in fiscal 2020, after expecting to gradually wind down the production line. Chris Pehrson, General Atomics' vice president of strategic development, told Air Force Magazine ...
An Air Force-affiliated technology accelerator on Jan. 24 named the startups chosen to participate in 2020, its third group since 2018. The “Air Force Accelerator Powered by Techstars” program picks small businesses that offer products that can benefit troops as well as a broad swath ...
The XQ-58A Valkyrie drone finished its fourth flight test in Arizona on Jan. 23, coming back from a mishap that occurred during its previous test in the fall. Valkyrie, an Air Force Research Laboratory program with manufacturer Kratos Defense, is being designed as a possible ...
Military research on how to protect against threatening unmanned aircraft has so far focused on two ends of the drone spectrum—store-bought products like small quadcopters and large, advanced aircraft akin to the MQ-9 Reaper. But Evan Hunt, high-energy laser business development lead at Raytheon, argues ...
The Air Force Research Laboratory recently conducted a successful test of a next-generation, customizable remotely piloted aircraft, flying the drone for about two and a half days earlier this month. The Ultra Long Endurance Aircraft Platform, known as Ultra LEAP, is a commercial airframe converted ...
The XQ-58A Valkyrie demonstrator, a long-range, high subsonic unmanned air vehicle, completed its inaugural flight March 5, 2019, at Yuma Proving Grounds, Ariz. Air Force photo by SrA. Joshua Hoskins. The XQ-58A Valkyrie experimental “wingman” drone was damaged upon landing...