Asides

DARPA Seeks Rapid, Long-Term Deployment UAVs

Flight International reported that “[u]ltra-long endurance and ultra-fast deployment are the targets of new U.S. programs to demonstrate technology for future autonomous aircraft.” Seeking “to push the boundaries of unmanned aviation to extremes,” the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has created projects such as the Vulture program, which calls for the demonstration of “unmanned aircraft capable of staying aloft for five years.” Program manager Daniel Newman explained that while “the challenges of an ‘infinite endurance’ aircraft are enormous,” success would mark a “paradigm shift” were aircraft are “no longer define[d]…by the launch, recover, maintain, launch cycle.” Newman detailed the “three architecture options” of the project, as well as potential “energy cycle solutions.” Nuclear power solutions, he noted, are “barred from consideration.” Flight International also reported on the Rapid Eye program, which seeks the development of “a UAV that could be rocket-deployed to anywhere in the world within hours.” That program is scheduled to “to get under way soon as a companion to the Vulture.”

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