Unmanned off-board sensing station in development with GA-ASI
NewsNovember 03, 2021
POWAY, Calif. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) received a $17.8 million award from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to design and develop an unmanned off-board sensing station (OBSS) aircraft.
AFRL is developing an open architecture concept Autonomous Collaborative Platform (ACP) to achieve its goals of rapid time-to-market and low acquisition cost, while extending and enhancing the sensing volume of manned platforms.
According to the AFRL, OBSS was conceptualized as part of the ACP to function as an unmanned system that is intended to extend the sensing range and provide space for extra weapons on manned aircraft.
The award covers the next 12 months as the base effort, and if the option is exercised, GA-ASI will spend the following 15 months manufacturing and flight demonstrating the aircraft with the award potentially growing to a total of $49 million.
