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DARPA Taps 9 Companies to Develop VTOL Drone Designs

DARPA Taps 9 Companies to Develop VTOL Drone Designs - top government contractors - best government contracting event

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.

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Written by Naomi Cooper

is a full-time writer for ArchIntel, a division of Executive Mosaic, and a contributor for ExecutiveBiz. She covers emerging technologies, technology innovation, contract awards, partnerships and market expansion stories in the government contracting industry.

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