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Advanced / Transformational Technology

DIU Director Proposes Swarming Drones as Candidate for Future AFWERX Prime Program

Frank Wolfe

Friday, December 11th, 2020

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DIU Director Proposes Swarming Drones as Candidate for Future AFWERX Prime Program

The MIT Lincoln Labs' Perdix micro-drone has been part of an effort by the Pentagon Strategic Capabilities Office to examine drone swarms (MIT Lincoln Labs Photo)

Michael Brown, the director of the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), on Dec. 11 proposed swarming drones as a candidate for a future AFWERX Prime program. Through Prime programs, AFWERX, the U.S. Air Force’s innovation arm, intends to use relatively small service investments in advanced technology areas to spark significant interest from commercial companies, including start-ups, to speed the development and fielding of such technologies in the commercial and military realms. The first such effort, Agility Prime, is the Air…

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