Unmanned Systems

The Senate Armed Services Committee recommends authorizing $100 million for a major Marine Corps unmanned aircraft initiative, according to a summary of the fiscal year 2019 defense policy bill, putting them at odds with House lawmakers who want to cut the service's request citing "unjustified cost growth."

Air Force Air Education and Training Command is gathering data that will shape whether and how the service allows enlisted airmen to fly MQ-9 Reapers, the command's top general told reporters this week.

The Missile Defense Agency is soliciting ideas for a kinetic interceptor to destroy ballistic missiles during the boost-phase of flight, a first step in establishing a parallel -- or potential rival -- program to the technologically ambitious effort to develop a speed-of-light weapon to kill long-range enemy missiles immediately after launch.

The version of the fiscal year 2019 defense policy bill passed by the House Armed Services Committee last week includes a provision that would require the Defense Department to provide information on its efforts to protect Army maneuver forces from low-cost unmanned aircraft systems.

The House Armed Services Committee is nudging the Air Force to invest more in its EQ-4B Battlefield Airborne Communications Node aircraft, a modified version of Northrop Grumman's RQ-4 Global Hawk, in the chairman's mark of the fiscal year 2019 defense policy bill.

The Air Force Research Laboratory and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency plan to demonstrate whether teams of manned and unmanned aircraft can work together in an air-to-ground combat mission, following a series of flight tests last fall.

The Army intends to award a contract for a “unique solution” for an unmanned aerial system device that would provide real-time location of its UAS platforms while reducing size and weight. The service would use the capability to enhance UAS and counter-UAS training at two combat training centers.

Dynetics will prove whether it can launch and recover four small unmanned aerial vehicles from a C-130 in 30 minutes during phase three of the Pentagon's Gremlins program, beating out General Atomics for a $32.5 million contract this week.

Data processing, exploitation and dissemination research will be fast-tracked by a new rapid development team at the Air Force Research Laboratory that calls itself a special-operations team for autonomy.