Naomi Cooper
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has named nine companies to develop and demonstrate conceptual designs for an uncrewed aerial system with vertical landing and takeoff, and long endurance leap-ahead capabilities.
The AdvaNced airCraft Infrastructure-Less Launch And RecoverY initiative seeks to develop and flight demonstrate a VTOL aircraft that can be deployed and recovered from austere land locations without supporting equipment, DARPA said Thursday.
Awardees under the ANCILLARY program are:
- AeroVironment
- AVX Aircraft
- Griffon Aerospace
- Karem Aircraft
- Leidos
- Method Aeronautics
- Northrop Grumman
- Piasecki Aircraft
- Sikorsky
Each company will develop X-plane designs under the Phase Ia award and submit proposals for more detailed design work.
DARPA expects to conduct flight tests in early 2026.
