Air Force Research Lab Flies First Autonomous Collaborative “Off-Board Sensing” Drone

by Hassan Green, Warrior Contributor

Prototype technology continues to aim high at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) as a new “autonomous collaborative platform” XQ-67A drone embarked upon its first flight to assess next-generation software and sensing technology. 

The idea is to engineer a small fleet of attritable, low-cost yet highly efficient and precise drones to “collaborate” with and operate alongside more advanced stealthy platforms such as the Air Force’s Valkyrie drone with to give the service “credible, affordable mass.” 

The AFRL intends to build these on a common chassis in order to enable low-cost “mass” and provide a small fleet of forward operating drone-sensors able to blanket high-risk areas with surveillance, test enemy air defenses and send real-time data to other drones, manned aircraft and command and control nodes. 

On February 28, 2024, the AFRL’s Aerospace Systems Directorate recently flew the XQ-67A, an Off-Board Sensing Station (OBSS), an uncrewed air vehicle at the General Atomics Gray Butte Flight Operations Facility near Palmdale, CA.

The flight test was a resounding success, as shared this past week via the AFRL’s official page.

The XQ-67A is the first of a second-generation autonomous aircraft, more properly referred to as an autonomous collaborative platform or ACP. The ongoing efforts of this prototype follow the trail of the XQ-58A Valkyrie, an experimental stealth unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV), used by both the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Marine Corps.

Similar to its predecessor, the Valkyrie, the XQ-67A’s chassis and “genus” approach to aircraft design, along with its recent testing performance is encouraging, and shows real potential for expanding the capacity of future aircraft capabilities.