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.
According to Doug Meador, autonomous collaborative platform capability lead with AFRL’s Aerospace Systems Directorate, “The genus can be built upon for other aircraft — similar to that of a vehicle frame — with the possibility of adding different aircraft kits to the frame, such as an Off-Board Sensing Station or Off-Board Weapon Station, [or OBWS].”
The performance of the XQ-67A is also attributed to the autonomous collaborative platform; a combination of several facets, “autonomy, human systems integration, sensor and weapons payloads, networks and communications, and the air vehicle,” Meador said.
Warrior Video: Navy Makes Huge Leap Forward With Drones
Autonomous flight is achieved under the control of automatic systems, with no intervention coming from a human pilot or operator. With AI-involved technologies continuing to progress upward, this autonomous integration, along with its design concept at the core will bring about a new era of truly cost-efficient unmanned aerial aircraft.
To go a step further, the concept of autonomy here could potentially include software integration similar to what’s recently been seen with the Stormbreaker attack bomb, featuring the ability to use all-weather millimeter wave sensing to track moving targets, for example.
The progression of the current XQ-67A could also be viewed as flying in line with the Pentagon’s recent “Replicator” program, which is fortifying its own deterrence and combat operations such as area denial, electronic shields, and new autonomous aerial maneuvers.
“We’ve been evolving this class of systems since the start of the Low Cost Attritable Aircraft Technologies, [or LCAAT], initiative… the Low Cost Attritable Aircraft Platform Sharing, or LCAAPS, program, fed technology and knowledge forward into the OBSS program that culminated with building and flying the XQ-67A” Meador also adds.
“The intention behind LCAAPS early on was these systems were to augment, not replace, manned aircraft,” said Trenton White, LCAAPS and OBSS program manager from AFRL’s Aerospace Systems Directorate.
Meador credits White for his early involvement starting nearly 10 years ago, going from early design and testing of the XQ-58A Valkyrie, to what currently exists now with the XQ-67A.
“The main objectives here are to validate an open aircraft system concept for hardware and software and to demonstrate rapid time-to-market and low development cost,” White also added.
The progress of the XQ-67A signals to others that there is a new approach to constructing an autonomous aircraft, moving away from the conventional method of starting from scratch, Meador said. But he affirms “We don’t have the time and resources to do that…We have to move quicker now.”
Hassan D. Green, Warrior Contributor, is currently a research editor in the Buffalo, NY area
