Lockheed Martin‘s [LMT] Sikorsky plans to introduce a “fast pack” feature for its Nomad 100 autonomous drones. The “fast pack” would have a 20-foot container to allow rapid deployment of four Nomad 100s.
Under the concept, a soldier with a tablet would choose a mission, such as reconnaissance, push a button on the tablet with the location of the reconnoiter, press the launch button, and monitor the mission.
“What this allows us to do is move away from that ground control station and pilots flying these aircraft,” Ramsey Bentley, Sikorsky’s advanced concepts director, told reporters last week before this week’s Association of the U.S. Army annual conference in Washington, D.C. “We’ve really put this capability in the hands of the soldier on the forward edge of the battlefield.”
Last October, Sikorsky announced the development of the autonomous, twin prop-rotor Nomad drones, based on the company’s rotor blown wing vertical take-off and landing concept (Defense Daily, Oct. 6, 2025).
The company said it is developing Nomad 500 and Nomad 1000 drones as well that are larger than the Group 3 sized Nomad 100s.
Group 3 drones have a weight between 56 and 1,320 pounds and speeds below 250 knots.
Sikorsky has a contract for three Nomad 100s under the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency’s (DARPA) Early VTOL Aircraft Demonstration (EVADE) program (Defense Daily, June 27). In addition, the U.S. Marine Corps is buying two Nomad 100s, Bentley said.
“In its planned configuration, two Nomad 100 aircraft can be mission ready in less than 15 minutes, with two additional aircraft available within four to six hours,” according to Sikorsky. “The containerized system is designed for runway independent launch from locations such as naval vessels, tactical vehicle staging areas and improvised landing zones.”
The Army has said that it wants replacements for Textron‘s [TXT] RQ-7 Shadow in the Group 3 category and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc.‘s MQ-1C Gray Eagle drones in Group 4 for Army division and corps-level reconnaissance (Defense Daily, Aug. 12, 2025).
“The Nomad 100 fast pack is designed to help customers close critical operational gaps where runway-independent launch, limited forward support and rapid relocation are mission priorities,” the company said. “Depending on customer configuration, Nomad 100 fast pack can enable missions including ISR-T [intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting], light attack, and contested logistics, giving operators multi-role capabilities in challenging and dynamic environments.”
