AFLCMC awards three Skyborg contracts
The US Air Force’s Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) has awarded contracts to three companies to produce missionized Skyborg prototypes with the ability to fly in experimentation events while teaming with manned aircraft. The contracts were awarded to:
- The Boeing Co., for $25,748,180
- General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., for $14,317,933; and
- Kratos Unmanned Aerial Systems Inc., for $37,771,577
Initial vehicles are anticipated to be delivered no later than May 2021 to conduct initial flight test prior to the start of more detailed flight trials in July 2021.
The aim of the Skyborg Vanguard program is to integrate autonomous attritable Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) technology with open missions systems to enable manned-unmanned teaming. Skyborg will provide the foundation on which the Air Force can build an airborne autonomous ‘best of breed’ system that adapts, orients, and decides at machine speed for a wide variety of increasingly complex mission sets.
“This award is a major step forward for our game-changing Skyborg capability. We will experiment to prove out this technology and to do that we will aggressively test and fly to get this capability into the hands of our warfighters,” said Brig. Gen. Dale White, Program Executive Officer for Fighters and Advanced Aircraft. He, along with Brig. Gen. Heather Pringle, Commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), serves as the leadership for the Skyborg program.
Skyborg is one of three Vanguard programs identified in 2019 as part of the Air Force Science and Technology (S&T) 2030 initiative. These high priority development efforts are meant to rapidly field systems, by pairing technology development under AFRL with the acquisitions capabilities found in AFLCMC.
“The value in this close partnership between AFRL and AFLCMC is becoming clear. When we field proven technology faster it gives our warfighters the edge they need to win the day,” said Pringle.
There will be competition throughout the entire period of performance of these awards. The effort will consist of multiple phases, meant to continue evaluation of the performance of the vendors. These vehicles will not only serve as platforms to test the Skyborg Autonomous Core System but will also help to demonstrate the competitive advantage of autonomous attritable aircraft by participating in user focused and influenced experimentation events.