The U.S. Coast Guard has released a request for proposals for a program to conduct a demonstration of long-range/ultra-long endurance unmanned aircraft systems designed to perform intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations. A FedBizOpps notice posted Thursday says the LR/U-LE UAS Technology Demonstration Plan seeks to evaluate the performance of drones through a six-week, four-phase demonstration […] More

NASA and Uber Technologies have teamed up to identify new urban air mobility-related technologies and concepts designed to ensure safety of aerial transportation operations in populated areas. The agency said Wednesday Uber will share its implementation plans for an urban aviation rideshare network, while NASA will use computer modeling and simulation for airspace management to […] More

Boeing’s Aviall subsidiary has joined an industry team to help transition the Bronco II aircraft to the U.S. market. Boeing said Tuesday Aviall will work with Paramount Group, Aerospace Development and Fulcrum Concepts through the Bronco Combat Systems team. Bronco II is a two-person aircraft designed to support command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and […] More

Lockheed Martin has announced three industry partners for its proposed offering for the U.S. Navy’s MQ-25 carrier-based aerial tanker drone program, Defense News reported Monday. Lockheed officials announced Monday that General Electric and United Technologies Corp. will respectively supply the F404 turbofan engine and the F-35C landing gear, while Triumph Aerostructures will produce the drone’s internal structure. Lockheed’s Skunk […] More

Boeing has already conducted several tests of its proposed unmanned aircraft system for the U.S. Navy’s MQ-25 Stingray carrier-based aerial refueling tanker drone program ahead of the service’s contract award decision, National Defense reported Friday. “We have already demonstrated a lot of the functionality… We have done almost everything short of flying,” Donald “BD” Gaddis, Boeing’s […] More

Lockheed Martin has launched its proposed concept for the U.S. Navy’s MQ-25A Stingray carrier-based aerial tanker drone program, USNI News reported Monday. The drone concept from Lockheed’s Skunk Works business has a flying wing design equipped with a set of sensors in the aircraft’s nose and a single D-704 buddy tank. Boeing and General Atomics […] More

The U.S. Navy has awarded potential three-year contracts to business units of Cubic and Lockheed Martin to develop quantitative methods to assess and explore combined arms concepts for urban military operations. Cubic’s defense applications business and Lockheed’s rotary and mission systems unit are two of the five selected contractors for a project that will revolve around human capacities, systems, plans, software […] More

The Air Force Research Laboratory has collaborated with a public-private manufacturing consortium to create operational prototypes of a circuit board system in efforts to accelerate the development of smart technologies. AFRL said Thursday it worked with NextFlex: America’s Flexible Hybrid Electronics Manufacturing Institute to develop Arduino integrated circuit systems that are designed to be programmed through open-source software. […] More

The European Space Agency has selected five companies to study the feasibility of using a commercial microlauncher to deploy small satellites into orbit. ArianeGroup, MT-Aerospace, ELV, Deimos and PLD Space will conduct research on their proposed concepts, ESA said Thursday. France-based ArianeGroup, a joint venture of Airbus and Safran, proposed to develop the three-stage Quick Access to Space vehicle […] More

Kenneth “Steve” Callicutt, former director of capability and resource integration at the U.S. Strategic Command, has joined the board of advisers at Polaris Alpha. The Washington, D.C.-based firm said Wednesday Callicutt brings knowledge and experience in the areas of mission planning, weapons system development and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. “Steve has deep expertise in so many […] More

NASA seeks new technologies from small businesses and research institutions that can be transitioned to support the space agency’s mission programs and other commercial applications. The space agency said Friday interested parties can submit responses for the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Phase I solicitation through March 9. Phase I awards for […] More

NASA has selected a Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory proposal as one of two finalists for the space agency’s New Frontiers program which aims to further solar system exploration efforts. Johns Hopkins said Thursday the proposed Dragonfly dual-quadcopter vehicle will look to evaluate the prebiotic organic chemistry as well as the habitability of Saturn’s […] More