DARPA
Every UASFeed story on DARPA — across defense, counter-UAS, industry, commercial, policy, and tech, newest first.
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Tech & Builds
Old-School Helicopter Beats Drones at DARPA's Lift Challenge
A 13.3 kg conventional single-rotor helicopter from AVIDrone outlifted over 100 exotic drone designs at DARPA's Lift Challenge, hauling 51 kg of cast iron for a 3.84:1 ratio — though no one hit the 4:1 target DARPA wanted.
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Tech & Builds
DARPA's Lift Challenge Crowns a Helicopter-Style Winner at 3.84:1 Payload Ratio
AVIDrone's conventional-rotor Katana beat out more exotic VTOL designs to win DARPA's $6.5M Lift Challenge, hauling 112.4 lbs on a 29.3-lb airframe — just shy of the 4:1 target DARPA set for the field.
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Tech & Builds
DARPA's Lift Challenge Falls Just Short of 4x Payload Goal as Avidrone's Katana Tops the Field
Avidrone's single-rotor Katana won DARPA's Lift Challenge with a 3.84:1 payload-to-weight ratio, narrowly missing the agency's 4x target as dozens of teams competed for a $6.5 million prize pool at the Air Force Museum in Dayton.
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Tech & Builds
DARPA's $6.5M Lift Challenge Finals Kick Off in Dayton, Chasing a 4:1 Payload Breakthrough
Roughly 115 teams converge on the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force this week to chase DARPA's $6.5 million prize for a sub-55-pound VTOL aircraft that can lift a 110-pound payload — as one finalist, Jetoptera, walks away over new safety rules.
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Tech & Builds
DARPA's $6.5M Lift Challenge Kicks Off in Dayton, Pitting 120+ Teams on Heavy-Lift Drone Design
More than 120 teams descended on Wright-Patterson AFB this week to chase $6.5 million in DARPA prize money for a sub-55-pound drone that can haul four times its own weight.
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Tech & Builds
DARPA's Lift Challenge Adds 30+ Teams Ahead of August Vertical-Lift Flyoff in Dayton
DARPA has grown its Lift Challenge to 124 teams from 20+ countries, setting up a $6.5 million heavy vertical-lift flyoff at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, August 2-9, with public finals August 6-9.
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Tech & Builds
DARPA Bets on Nuclear Waste to Give Drones 30-Year Endurance
DARPA's $3.37M "Rads to Watts" award puts Morgan State University in charge of turning Strontium-90 nuclear waste into radiovoltaic power cells aimed at giving drones and satellites decades of untethered flight.
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Tech & Builds
DARPA-Backed SYMPHONEE Program Aims to Turn Nuclear Waste Into Decades-Long Drone Power
A Morgan State-led team is building SYMPHONEE, a Strontium-90 radiovoltaic cell under a $3.37M DARPA contract, targeting over 10 W/kg and decades of unattended power for drones and remote systems.
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Tech & Builds
Dead Zone Autonomy: How Edge AI Keeps Drones Flying When GPS and Comms Disappear
Russian electronic warfare can blank GPS within 5 kilometers of deployment. Shield AI’s president says 99% of military autonomous systems fail under jamming. The solution — running perception, navigation, and targeting entirely on the drone — is now combat-proven.
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Tech & Builds
Optionally Piloted Aircraft: The Platform That Bridges Crewed and Autonomous Flight
Optionally piloted aircraft hold manned airworthiness certificates while enabling fully autonomous operations—closing the regulatory gap that stalls pure UAVs. From proven Afghan cargo resupply missions to DARPA’s autonomous Black Hawk delivered to the Army in 2026, the concept reshapes military logistics and aviation.
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Tech & Builds
Swarm Mesh Networking: The Hidden Architecture Behind Autonomous Drone Coordination
Drone light shows and true autonomous swarms share an airspace but almost nothing else. The decentralized MANET/FANET mesh—multi-hop routing, anti-jamming MARL, GPS-denied positioning—is what separates choreography from genuine collective autonomy, and what DARPA OFFSET and Replicator's $1B are chasing.
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Tech & Builds
Tilt-Rotor, Tailsitter, and Ducted-Fan Drones: The VTOL Hover-Cruise Trade-Off
Every VTOL aircraft must reconcile two contradictory physics demands: hover requires high blade area and tip speed, while forward flight requires the opposite. Tilt-rotor, tailsitter, and ducted-fan architectures each place their bets differently — with lasting consequences for military range and noise compliance.
