MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. Autonomous aircraft company Reliable Robotics obtained military airworthiness approval to begin flight testing and operational missions of its remotely piloted Cessna 208 Caravan for the U.S. Air Force, a milestone that will enable it to demonstrate dual-use automated flight capabilities for military use cases, including cargo missions.

WHITE SANDS, N.M. Raytheon (an RTX business) and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) report successful completion of a three-week field test of the CHIMERA [Counter-Electronic High-Power Microwave Extended-Range Air Base Defense system] high-power microwave (HPM) weapon at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. 

ARLINGTON, Va. The U.S. Air Force (USAF) announced the selection of five companies that will develop autonomous aircraft for the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program: Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Anduril, and General Atomics. 

AUSTIN, Tex. Firmware security company NetRise received an STTR [small business technology transfer] Phase 1 grant focusing on identifying and managing the risk in firmware and software of connected devices to address the most pressing challenges in the Department of the Air Force (DAF). 

SUNNYVALE, Calif. Semiconductor memory company GSI Technology was tapped by AFWERX (the innovation arm of the Department of the U.S. Air Force and a directorate within the Air Force Research Laboratory) for a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Direct-to-Phase II contract totaling $1.1 million to demonstrate high-data computation/artificial intelligence (AI) use cases leveraging the in-memory architecture of its next-generation Associative Processing Unit-2 (APU2)

TUCSON, Ariz. Raytheon (an RTX business) won a $345 million contract with the U.S. Air Force (USAF) to produce and deliver more than 1,500 StormBreaker smart weapons, which are air-to-surface, network-enabled weapons that can engage moving targets in all weather conditions using a multi-effects warhead and tri-mode seeker.

TUCSON, Ariz. Raytheon will design, build, and test two high-power microwave antenna systems for the U.S. military that will use directed energy to defeat airborne threats; the systems are intended to be rugged and transportable for use on the front lines where needed.