The Air Force has a new X-plane: The X-68A LongShot from General Atomics is an air-launched drone intended to carry additional air-to-air munitions. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has been developing LongShot since 2021, and announced on Feb. 17 that flight testing could begin “as early as the end of 2026.”
X-plane
Bell Textron has won DARPA's contest for a no-runway, high-speed drone that will prove out technologies useful for special operations forces and possibly the Air Force's Agile Combat Employment concept. Bell's design converts a tiltrotor to a jet-powered aircraft able to fly at up to ...
What kind of aircraft the Air Force needs, what it can afford, and how long it will be before that aircraft is available all hang in the balance.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has assigned the designation XRQ-73 to its newest “X-plane,” an autonomous flying wing reconnaissance aircraft prototype with extra-quiet propulsion that is expected to fly this year, the agency announced June 24.
The ability to fuel aircraft, ships, and vehicles and to power the comfort and computing needs of a military force is arguably the most crucial piece of the entire logistics chain. That is going to be the margin of victory in great power competition.