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Unmanned Systems

Five U.S.-Made sUAS Cleared by DIU for Government Use

By Brian Garrett-Glaser

Thursday, August 20th, 2020

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Five U.S.-Made sUAS Cleared by DIU for Government Use

A version of Skydio's X2, pictured, and four other U.S.-made drones were approved by the Defense Innovation Unit to be added to the GSA schedule for trusted use by customers across the federal government. (Skydio)

With Congress poised to ban all U.S. government purchasing of Chinese drones and components, the Department of Defense is leveraging its small UAS prototyping efforts with industry to offer trusted and vetted options to military and federal customers. The new effort by the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), called Blue sUAS, builds on the Army’s ongoing Short-Range Reconnaissance (SRR) development program, which selected six U.S. and allied companies to develop an inexpensive VTOL drone weighing less than 5 pounds that can…

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