The U.S. Air Force has selected three defense companies to produce unmanned aerial vehicle prototypes for its Skyborg program, which will pair a drone guided by artificial intelligence with a human piloting a fighter jet. The service last week awarded contracts to Boeing Co., $25.7 million; General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, $14.3 million; and Kratos Unmanned Aerial Systems, $37.8 million.
Each will build a drone within a 24-month period, according to an Air Force release. The service did not specify how many prototype vehicles each company should produce and did not provide design specification criteria.
"This award is a major step forward for our game-changing Skyborg capability," Brig. Gen. Dale White, Program Executive Officer for Fighters and Advanced Aircraft, said in the release. "We will experiment to prove out this technology and, to do that, we will aggressively test and fly to get this capability into the hands of our warfighters."...MORE
