The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) on Thursday said it has added three additional unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) from Anduril Industries, Freefly Systems, and Skydio to its list of approved commercially-developed small UAS that can be acquired by warfighters without having to worry about a program of record.
The additional UAS are Anduril’s autonomous Ghost-X, Freefly’s Astro quadcopter, and Skydio’s X10D. All three companies already had one or more small platforms on DIU’s Blue UAS, which meets certain supply chain and cybersecurity requirements.
Additionally, DIU has significantly expanded the number of verified UAS-related components and software available for its government and industry partners. The Blue UAS Framework has gone from five to 36 total options in the past three months, DIU said.
“These updates, along with allowing DoD users to plug and play specific capabilities in response to their changing needs, will reduce administrative burdens with not having to pursue Exceptions to Policy in order to use the payloads and capabilities they need,” DIU said. “The updated Blue UAS Framework List will provide approved options within the bounds of existing Authorizations to Operate.”
DIU said it is responding to “global events” and the need for the Blue List to be more responsive to the needs of the Defense Department and commercial partners.
DIU is also conducting two pilots to better meet user needs. One is the continuous monitoring of software so that updates can be approved faster, within 96 hours versus the current 45-day average.
The second effort is to “allow transfer of critical component information” from the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International’s Green UAS List of vetted commercial drone technologies to the Blue UAS Framework. DIU said this will give end users more options.