The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, has hired General Atomics, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, to craft designs for an air-launched missile-toting air-to-air combat drone as part of a program called LongShot. In concept, a larger manned aircraft would fire this unmanned air vehicle, which could then fly to a certain area and engage multiple aerial threats with its own weapons.
This, in turn, would extend the range of the launch platform and reduce its vulnerability to hostile aircraft or air defenses, among many other benefits.
DARPA announced the contract awards, the value of which has not yet been disclosed, on Feb. 8, 2021. Plans for LongShot had emerged last year in the Pentagon's budget request for the 2021 Fiscal Year, which asked for $22 million, in total, to conduct initial work, including the development and refinement of the design for a "demonstration system." ...MORE
