The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has launched the competitive phase of a technology demonstration that is designed to provide the company-level organic air vehicle (OAV) for use with the US Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS).DARPA has structured the four-year programme in three phases with separate downselect decisions scheduled at the end of Phase 1 and Phase 2. In the six-month Phase 1 period, the competitors will complete preliminary design reviews and DARPA will select only two bidders to continue into the nine-month Phase 2, which will focus on refining the vehicles' critical collision-avoidance technology.
Finally, a single bidder will be selected to enter the 33-month Phase 3, which will comprise assembling the air vehicle, integrating the sensor payload and performing extensive flight tests. The technology is then expected to transition to the Boeing FCS development programme.
Honeywell is to offer a scaled version of Allied Aerospace's iSTAR ducted-fan vehicle for the OAV requirement. Aurora Flight Sciences has been working to prepare its Goldeneye ducted fan. Singapore Technologies Aerospace could compete in the programme with the Fantail ducted fan.
BAE Systems, meanwhile, had an unnamed ducted-fan UAV on display at the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International's Unmanned Systems North America convention in Anaheim, California in early August, although the company declines to furnish details of its proposal, citing "competitive sensitivity".
Proposals for the requirement are scheduled to be returned to DARPA on 20 September. Although it is classified as an army programme, DARPA's solicitation says that the vehicle-launched, short-range UAV should also "find extensive use" with the US Marine Corps and US Special Operations Command.
STEPHEN TRIMBLE / WASHINGTON DC
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY PETER LA FRANCHI
Source: Flight International
