drones

The British Army is pushing the concept of the Loyal Wingman combat drone into new territory as Project NYX, with the help of seven industry partners, looks to develop a rotary drone that can work in concert with the Apache AH-64E attack helicopter.

The software and hardware that will control tomorrow's combat drones got a workout on January 18, as a General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger showed off its capability by autonomously intercepting a crewed aggressor aircraft in an air combat exercise.

Ukraine has, for the first time, sent into combat a hybrid drone powered by hydrogen fuel. According to the builder Skyeton, a variant of its Raybird was deployed for full-scale combat duty with the Ukrainian Armed Forces in an active war zone.

You can't even hide from drones under the sea now, with General Atomics flight-testing its MQ-9B SeaGuardian maritime patrol craft. It was trying out the new Expanded Sonobuoy Dispensing System (ESDS) for hunting submarines where they hide.

As combat drones continue to move from the laboratory to the battlefield, the US Navy is exploring how to use a digitally simulated F-35 Lightning II aircraft to develop new tactics to go with the new technology.

Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works has shown how combat drones can think on the fly with a demonstration of its AI-Driven Mission Contingency Management (AI/MCM) system that can adjust missions in the face of unforeseen events.

The Loyal Wingman concept has taken a major step toward reality as Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works pulled off an aerial demonstration where a 5th-generation F-22 Raptor interceptor took command of a drone for the first time.

Through its Tactical Technology Office (TTO), DARPA wants to move drones to the next level with its Lift Challenge – a US$6.5-million competition aimed at creating small drones capable of lifting payloads four times their weight.

General Atomics has rolled out the latest iteration of its modular Gambit series of Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), adapting the common-core airframe for air-to-ground missions while retaining its autonomous core capabilities.

Blurring the line between biology and robotics, Chinese scientists are taking biomimicry to new depths with a small, low-energy bionic jellyfish that's so lifelike in form and movement it’s almost indistinguishable from the real thing.

It seems like autonomous aircraft makers are indulging in a bit of oneupsmanship as Shield AI rolls out its X-BAT VTOL Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) that combines the ability to land and take off without a runway with long-range endurance.

Lockheed Martin subsidiary Sikorsky is blurring the line between helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft with its new Nomad family of Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS) that combine the versatility of a helicopter with the speed and endurance of a fixed-wing aircraft.