Lockheed Martin says it will continue to work on unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAVs) with the US Air Force and Navy despite withdrawing from the US Defence Advanced Research Project Agency's (DARPA) technology demonstration programme.
The move leaves Boeing, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon Systems competing for a $110 million contract, to be awarded in January, to build and test two strike UCAV demonstrators.
Lockheed Martin and DARPA say they "mutually agreed" that the company would discontinue work on the UCAV demonstration programme after a joint assessment of the results to date under one of four preliminary design contracts awarded in April. Sources say Lockheed Martin's approach to the programme did not match DARPA requirements.
Source: Flight International
