Unmanned Systems

The United States will propose changes to how the Missile Technology Control Regime guides exports of unmanned aerial systems at an upcoming annual meeting, as officials want to enable U.S. companies to compete with countries like China for foreign UAS sales.

The Missile Defense Agency has awarded a new round of contracts to a trio of defense firms drafting new airborne laser proposals, advancing the Pentagon objective to field an unmanned aerial vehicle armed with a speed-of-light weapon to shoot down enemy ballistic missiles by the early 2020s.

Lockheed Martin Ventures has made a second investment in Ocean Aero, the developer of the Submaran unmanned maritime vehicle.

The Navy has begun conducting "independent technical risk assessments," which were mandated by the Pentagon's chief technology officer in June, starting with the service's highly anticipated unmanned aerial tanker and followed by an all-weather landing system for land- and sea-based aircraft as well as a multimission radar, according to a Navy spokesman.

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency is seeking to immediately triple funding for a project that aims to defeat an unmanned aircraft -- including small drones -- that could be armed with chemical, biological or nuclear materials, an objective Defense Secretary Jim Mattis wants fielded by December.

The Air Force Association's Mitchell Institute this week proposed the service consider pulling Lockheed Martin F-16 jets from the boneyard to repurpose them as autonomous aircraft that can fight in tandem with other platforms like the B-21 and F-35, arguing fleets of autonomous aircraft are a cost-effective way to bolster combat capacity.

The Navy intends to accelerate a large unmanned undersea vehicle program by bringing the government's design to industry five years earlier than planned, a plan Senate appropriators are supporting in their version of the fiscal year 2019 defense spending bill.

The Navy appears to have quietly decided to retain both contractors for the second phase of a large unmanned underwater vehicle program, according to Senate appropriators.

The Army's Maneuver Center of Excellence in Ft. Benning, GA, has hosted a number of companies that are developing algorithms for robot "swarming," or controlling many at once, according to a service official.