The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency this week awarded contracts to the first companies that will develop the capability to launch and recover volleys of small unmanned aircraft from one or more existing large airplanes.
+More on Network World: +
DARPA’s Gremlins program has as a goal to launch groups of drones from large aircraft such as bombers or transport planes, as well as from fighters and other small, fixed-wing platforms while those planes are out of range of adversary defenses. When the Gremlins complete their mission, a C-130 transport aircraft would retrieve them in the air and carry them home, where ground crews would prepare them for their next use within 24 hours, DARPA said.
With an expected lifetime of about 20 uses, Gremlins could fill a need between existing models of missiles and conventional aircraft, DARPA stated.
DARPA said it awarded Phase 1 contracts for its Gremlins program, which it said would deploy multiple drones simultaneously armed with a mixture of mission payloads capable of generating a variety of effects in a distributed and coordinated manner.
+More on Network World: +
The Phase 1 contracts have been awarded to four teams including:
- Composite Engineering, Inc.
- Dynetics, Inc.
- General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc.
- Lockheed Martin Corporation
Phase 1 of the Gremlins program is designed to pave the way for a proof-of-concept flight demonstration that would validate an air recovery concept of multiple gremlins. The program plans to explore numerous technical areas, including:
- Launch and recovery techniques, equipment and aircraft integration concepts
- Low-cost, limited-life airframe designs that leverage existing technology and require only modest modifications to current aircraft
- High-fidelity analysis, precision digital flight control, relative navigation and station keeping.
Check out these other hot stories:
FAA doubles altitude limits for business drones
US Federal Courts warn of aggressive scammers
DARPA $2M contest looks to bring AI to wireless spectrum provisioning
NASA competition could net you $1.5M for next great airship
FBI grows “Cyber Most Wanted” list with Syrian Electronic Army members
IRS: Top 10 2015 identity theft busts
FBI warning puts car hacking on bigger radar screen
NASA’s IG tells space agency to bolster space network security
Air Force faces challenges managing drone force
DARPA: Show us how to weaponize benign technologies
Boeing’s self-cleaning aircraft bathroom lets you use loo without touching anything (mostly)
US national lab advances wireless charging for electric cars