The U.S. Air Force is conducting market research to identify potential sources of a Group 3 small unmanned aircraft system that can carry and deploy Group 2 sUAS equipped with an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance payload.
According to a notice posted on SAM .gov on Wednesday, the swarm carrier drone should be ready within two to three years to support the Air Force Special Operations Command’s Adaptive Airborne Enterprise, or A2E, concept, which aims to have a single airman controlling multiple UAS.
The military branch requires the Group 3 aircraft, which will be air-dropped from a C-130, to be built using a modular open systems architecture approach to enable future upgrades.
Responses to the request for information are due Aug. 9.
According to the document, the Air Force may decide to hold one-on-one meetings with industry partners based on their responses to the RFI.
The military service intends to post additional A2E-focused RFIs for a Group 2 ISR drone and a Group 3 “signature managed” UAS, an aircraft with stealth qualities to avoid detection.
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