PASADENA, Calif. Artificial intelligence (AI)-powered software maker Virtualitics announced that it won a five-year United States Air Force (USAF) SBIR III [small business] contract worth more than $46 million, which the company says builds upon a three-year effort between Virtualitics and the USAF to explore and evolve how AI-guided applications can help flightline personnel achieve mission readiness goals and improve operational effectiveness.

The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) reports that two teams have been chosen to compete in the 2024 AFRL Commander’s Challenge, which seeks solutions to the threats to troops posed by slow-moving, high-altitude, aerial adversaries.

PHOENIX. Honeywell is launching a new counter-uncrewed aerial system (UAS) defensive system that detects, tracks, and counters UAS swarms by combining beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BLOS) communication with command-and-control capabilities. 

ENDICOTT, N.Y. BAE Systems announced that Boeing has chosen it to upgrade the fly-by-wire (FBW) flight control computers (FCC) for the F-15EX Eagle II and F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighter jets.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. Electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft maker Archer Aviation delivered its first Midnight aircraft to the U.S. Air Force (USAF) to evaluate as part of its AFWERX Agility Prime contract, previously valued at as much as $142 million. 

BURLINGTON, Mass. Collaborative-sensing provider MatrixSpace won a a $1.9 million AFWERX (the innovation arm of the Department of the Air Force) Tactical Funding Increase (TACFI) Phase II Sequential contract to develop a distributed dual-mode mesh radar to be used for military-base defense.

SAN DIEGO. Cubic Defense is an integral part of the team of industry, government, and academia industry partners collaborating in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Air Combat Evolution (ACE) program, which is underway in an effort to increase trust in combat autonomy by using human-machine collaborative dogfighting as its challenge problem.