Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)

By Graham Warwick
DBT Aero will evaluate pairing MagLev Aero's HyperDrive ducted-fan electric propulsion with its laminar-flow Double Box Tail airframe design.
Emerging Technologies

By Garrett Reim
The Pentagon announces $350 million for quantum computing, including DARPA's QBI and a $150 million conditional loan to PsiQuantum for a Milpitas, California, hub.
Budget, Policy & Operations

By Garrett Reim
It is easy to see why the Pentagon’s top research and development agency is interested in the idea of passive ranging.
Sensors & Electronic Warfare

By Michael Bruno
NorthStar Earth & Space, a startup providing sats for space situational awareness, debuted as a publicly traded company but saw its stock price lose ground.
Satellites

By Steve Trimble
AI-enabled systems routinely fly mock dogfights between fighters within visual range of each other. The next step is to unlock air combat beyond visual range.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Graham Warwick
DLR low-altitude tests; Dronamics uncrewed cargo trials; DARPA’s first Lift Challenge; Tekever VTOL uses hydraulic propulsion; and Sceye lighter-than-air HAPS.
Emerging Technologies

By Graham Warwick
DARPA’s second Lift Challenge will demand drones carry heavier payloads twice as far, advancing military capabilities.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Graham Warwick
Container-transporting turboprop; heavy-lifting drones; Nvidia’s AI at the edge; and NASA backs university research.
Emerging Technologies

By Graham Warwick
After its Lift Challenge came tantalizingly close to demonstrating that a drone can lift four times its own weight, DARPA has launched a program to mature the technology for military and commercial applications.
Advanced Air Mobility

By Graham Warwick
The competition narrowly misses the target of quadrupling drone payload-to-weight ratio.
Emerging Technologies

By Steve Trimble
DARPA is preparing to launch a new demonstrator program for a “revolutionary” hypersonic cruise missile, telling industry that the agency is seeking radical advances in speed, range and possibly altitude.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Graham Warwick
DARPA’s Lift Challenge pushes drone payload-to-weight limits, with Avidrone winning by carrying 3.84 times its weight over a 5-mi. course.
Emerging Technologies

By Graham Warwick
Sikorsky has completed initial ground and flight testing of a larger version of its Nomad rotor-blown-wing, VTOL uncrewed aircraft system.
Advanced Air Mobility

By Steve Trimble
A project to develop an autonomous capability for orchestrating complex, large-scale air combat scenarios has entered flight testing on a group of six Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 42 fighters.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Vivienne Machi
Northrop Grumman expects to launch its in-space robotic servicer no earlier than July 21 at 5:15 p.m. EDT, the company announced July 13.
Operations & Safety

By Graham Warwick
Airbus has wound up its Acubed innovation unit in the U.S., established in 2015 to connect the European aerospace giant with the fast-moving, disruptive thinking of Silicon Valley.
Advanced Air Mobility

By Graham Warwick
General Atomics sees air-recoverable uncrewed aircraft systems extending the reach of MQ-9 payloads.
Emerging Technologies

By Steve Trimble
DARPA is exploring options for installing tactical high-energy laser systems on Collaborative Combat Aircraft and ground vehicles for self-defense.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Garrett Reim
The cloud-based software is intended to allow space tech developers to test interoperability before flight.
Commercial Space

By Graham Warwick
Quantum sensing technology that a DARPA official described as the “end of stealth” is moving out the laboratory and into operational testing.
Sensors & Electronic Warfare

By Graham Warwick
Scaled Composites built the flying-wing UAS under a DARPA project to demonstrate hybrid propulsion.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Graham Warwick
DARPA's Sprint project develops a high-speed tiltrotor to address contested logistics and runway vulnerabilities with advanced V/STOL technology.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Graham Warwick
Hybrid-electric Shepard; deployable electric high-lift; laminar-flow UAS; and Leonardo’s advanced tiltrotor.
Emerging Technologies

By Brian Everstine
DARPA wants the ability to autonomously store, launch and recover swarms of Group 1 through 3 drones.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Graham Warwick
Otto Aerospace has completed flight tests of an uncrewed aircraft designed around its drag-reducing natural laminar flow technology.
Advanced Air Mobility