U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)

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

By Brian Everstine
The U.S. Air Force wants to retire all of its E-11A Battlefield Airborne Communications Nodes in 2028 as it shifts this role to space.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Graham Warwick
DLR has begun flying the Proteus, an uncrewed aircraft designed to fly with either a reference conventional wing or an experimental morphing wing.
Advanced Air Mobility

By Steve Trimble
DARPA has revealed interest in developing a new class of air-to-air missiles in which the top design requirement is mass production rather than maximizing performance.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Graham Warwick
Nuclear fusion rocket power; Matrix autonomy joins the Army; ship-to-shore contested logistics; and sulfur’s role in contrails formation.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Graham Warwick
Gulf airlines continue to face heavy disruption, while U.S. carriers deal with a fuel cost surge and must compete against largely hedged European airlines.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Graham Warwick
Stop-fold tiltrotor becomes X-76; Sikorsky tests hybrid powertrain; light-driven SAF production; and from nuclear power to liquid fuel.
Emerging Technologies

By Graham Warwick
The stop-fold tiltrotor uncrewed aircraft under development by Bell for a DARPA project to fly a high-speed VTOL demonstrator has been designated the X-76.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Graham Warwick
Singaporean eVTOL demonstrator; missile-launching uncrewed X-plane; BWB goes double-deck; and cheaper SAF by co-electrolysis.
Emerging Technologies

By Graham Warwick
An air-launched missile-carrying UAS developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems for DARPA’s LongShot project has been designed the X-68A.
Aircraft & Propulsion

By Vivienne Machi
Nuclear propulsion for space may be back in favor as the U.S. seeks technology to power vehicles going to Mars and beyond.
Launch Vehicles & Propulsion

By Steve Trimble
A recent series of ground tests validated a rotation detonation ramjet linked to a supersonic inlet for the first time.
Missile Defense & Weapons

By Graham Warwick
Automated Black Hawk; Eve’s eVTOL flies; Arctic auroral radar; controlling thin wings.
Emerging Technologies

By Garrett Reim
DARPA is taking a hard look at the quizzical, quantum-mechanics-based hardware.
Emerging Technologies

By Garrett Reim
Quantum sensors and navigation could be deployed soon while other technologies are years from reality.
Emerging Technologies

By Graham Warwick
DARPA wants to harness the noisy radio frequency environment of the ionosphere.
Sensors & Electronic Warfare

By Garrett Reim
DARPA has granted BAE Systems a contract for its Oversight program to make software that allows new military sats to track up to 1,000 targets on the ground.
Satellites

By Vivienne Machi
The ability to refuel satellites in orbit will be crucial to future U.S. military space operations, but the Pentagon needs more testbeds.
Satellites

By Graham Warwick
The agency’s Lift Challenge aims for at least a fourfold increase in drone payload-to-weight capability.
Aircraft & Propulsion