FORT HUACHUCA, Ariz. Raytheon Missiles & Defense reports that it successfully ran its first flight test of an air-launched effects (ALE) unmanned aerial system (UAS) -- based on the Raytheon Coyote uncrewed aircraft system design -- that it says satisfies the U.S. Army’s defined specifications for size, weight and power (SWaP) requirements for the Future Vertical Lift program.

SAN ANTONIO, Texas. Research and development organization Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) won an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (ID/IQ) contract valued at up to $34 million over five years to support the U.S. Army Ground Vehicle Systems Center in the area of R&D of autonomous and robotic vehicles.

ARLINGTON, Va. The U.S. Army conducted trials with the Textron "Ripsaw" M5 Robotic Combat Vehicle, one of the candidates the service is considering for its RCV-M [Robotic Combat Vehicle -- Medium] program, according to photos recently released by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). 

YUMA PROVING GROUND, Ariz. During a U.S. Army test, the Raytheon Missiles & Defense reusable Coyote Block 3 nonkinetic effector successfully defeated a swarm of unmanned aerial systems (UASs), according to a report from Raytheon.

WASHINGTON. Four companies -- Bren-Tronics, Inventus Power, Navitas Systems‘ government solutions group, and Ultralife -- recently won spots on a potential nine-year, $1.25 billion contract for a lightweight wearable battery under development by the U.S. Army’s Tactical Power Generation Program.

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND -- U.S. ARMY FACILITY. The U.S. Army Project Director for Sensors – Aerial Intelligence (PD SAI) has signed agreements with L3 Harris and Raytheon business units to work on the next phase of the Army's High Accuracy Detection and Exploitation System (HADES) next-generation airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) system that is intended to fly on an Army fixed-wing platform to be named later. 

Developing artificial intelligence (AI) technology for the battlefield is a top priority for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) as its adversaries continue to scale up their own AI and machine learning capabilities. Much of the DoD’s AI wizardry is spun out of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which looks to enable machines to become trusted, collaborative partners of not just warfighters but all humans.