US Air Force plans new unmanned aircraft capable of carrying 500 lbs over 230 miles

Silent Arrow has announced that it has been selected by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) for a $1.8 million Direct to Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract to develop a logistical drone.

This contract focuses on the development and flight testing of the Silent Arrow CLS-200, a special missions Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) designed for contested logistics operations over a range of 200 nautical miles (230 miles).

The CLS-200 relies on the foundational engineering of the commercially successful Silent Arrow GD-2000, the world's first heavy payload, autonomous, and attritable cargo delivery aircraft to enter full-rate production.

The GD-2000 has been deployed in the United States and multiple overseas countries from various aircraft, including the and Airbus A400M.

Mass production is based in the UK and led by Silent Arrow manufacturing partner The MEL Group under AS9100, with Airbus DS Airborne Solutions GmbH also partnered with Silent Arrow to distribute and support the GD-2000 heavy cargo delivery UAS platform throughout European market segments.

Whereas the GD-2000 is an unpowered glider, the new CLS-200 can travel six times as far by utilizing an innovative propulsion unit and propeller system that are inexpensive enough to allow the entire cargo drone to be single-use.

In addition to being air-droppable, it can take off from the ground, including from unimproved surfaces, naval vessels, and other launch points.

"We'd like to thank the U.S. Air Force, AFRL and our Air Force Customer and End-User organizations for expanding Silent Arrow's warfighter offerings by awarding this competitive Direct to Phase II," said Chip Yates, Silent Arrow's Founder and CEO.

"The flight testing at our Pendleton, Oregon facility will be exciting as we longline airdrop 5 units from our UH-1H rotorcraft and then deliver a 6th unit to the Air Force for their hands-on evaluation."

The UAS can carry 500 pounds to over 200 nautical miles (230 miles).

US Air Force drones In addition to CLS-200, in September, AFWERX selected Silent Arrow for an SBIR Phase II $1.25M contract focused on the Silent Arrow CLS-300 ("Contested Logistics System, 300nm Range") powered cargo drone to address the most pressing challenges in the Department of the Air Force (DAF).

The Air Force Research Laboratory and AFWERX had partnered to streamline the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) process by accelerating the small business experience through faster proposal to award timelines, changing the pool of potential applicants by expanding opportunities to small business and eliminating bureaucratic overhead by continually implementing process improvement changes in contract execution.

The DAF began offering the Open Topic SBIR/STTR program in 2018, which expanded the range of innovations the DAF funded.

Silent Arrow will start its journey to create and provide innovative capabilities to strengthen the United States of America's national defense.

The Silent Arrow product line consists of five attritable, autonomous cargo delivery aircraft capable of carrying 350 to 2,000 pounds of emergency, disaster relief, and humanitarian response supplies anywhere in the world on short notice.

The Silent Arrow GD-2000, Widebody, SA-PGB, CLS-200, and CLS-300 provide the warfighter with various contested logistics capabilities.

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