NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), whose Gremlins program is developing an air-launched, air-recoverable unmanned air system, is nearing completion of the program’s first phase and is gearing up for the second phase.

Four companies – Dynetics, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI), Kratos [KTOS] subsidiary Composite Engineering Inc. and Lockheed Martin [LMT] – received Phase 1 contracts for initial design work in March. DARPA is expected to issue a request for proposals for Phase 2 in a month or so and award contracts to two companies a few months later, according to industry officials.

General Atomics unveiled a concept for an air-launched, air-recoverable unmanned air system at an Air Force Association conference Sept. 19 to 21 in National Harbor, Md. (Photo by Marc Selinger/Defense Daily)
General Atomics unveiled a concept for an air-launched, air-recoverable unmanned air system at an Air Force Association conference Sept. 19 to 21 in National Harbor, Md. (Photo by Marc Selinger/Defense Daily)

At the Air Force Association’s Air, Space and Cyber Conference Sept. 19-21 here, GA-ASI unveiled a 12-foot-long, full-scale model of its likely offering. Chris Pehrson, the company’s vice president of strategic development, described the cruise missile-shaped UAS, which weighs about 800 pounds and has a folding front wing, as a “clean sheet” design that nevertheless resembles the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) that Lockheed Martin developed for the Air Force.

“I would call that co-evolution; it’s not a descendant” of JASSM, Pehrson told Defense Daily. “When you want that kind of speed and that kind of maneuverability, it kind of drives you to that shape of vehicle.”

Lockheed Martin is also basing its proposal on JASSM, a spokesman said. Dynetics and Kratos declined to discuss their offerings.

DARPA envisions that an existing aircraft, such as a C-130 transport plane, could launch and recover volleys of UAS in mid-air. The UAS, or “gremlins,” would carry a “mixture” of payloads.

“The gremlins’ expected lifetime of about 20 uses could provide significant cost advantages over expendable systems by reducing payload and airframe costs and by having lower mission and maintenance costs than conventional platforms, which are designed to operate for decades,” DARPA said in March.