The Pentagon has awarded Boeing Co., St. Louis, Missouri, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., Poway, California, Kratos Unmanned Aerial Systems Inc., Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Palmdale, California each indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts with a shared ceiling of $400,000,000 for all subsequent competitively selected delivery orders in support of the Skyborg Vanguard Program, the army’s AI-powered drones.
Pentagon said Skyborg is an autonomous attritable aircraft “capable of achieving a diverse set of missions to generate massed combat power; delivering a future Air Force which can deter, blunt and defeat peer adversaries.”
It said the Skyborg prototyping, experimentation and autonomy development contract will be used to deliver missionized prototypes in support of operational experimentation and develop the first Skyborg air platform with modular hardware and software payloads that will incorporate the Skyborg autonomy core system and enable manned/unmanned teaming.
The program is expected to be completed by July 2026.