AeroVironment (AV) has been selected by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to continue the development of its X-Plane design for the agency’s AdvaNced airCraft Infrastructure-Less Launch And RecoverY (ANCILLARY) program.
AV’s offering – Wildcat – is a Group 3 vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) developed specifically to execute ship-based operations in challenging maritime environments.
“We have prioritized controllability to ensure Wildcat meets the ‘anytime, anywhere’ goal of DARPA’s ANCILLARY program,” said AV’s Vice President of MacCready Works, Chris Fisher. “Wildcat leans on autonomy to reduce operational burdens while enabling safe, infrastructure-less launch and recovery in challenging conditions from a range of Navy ships.”
Wildcat utilizes AV’s SPOTR-Edge machine learning-enabled computer vision to significantly enhance mission effectiveness. This capability is built on AV’s extensive operational experience as a leader in the Group 1 to 3 UAS space, with millions of operational flight hours on its Raven, Puma AE, and JUMP 20 uncrewed systems.
ANCILLARY seeks the development of a low-weight, large-payload, long-endurance VTOL UAS for missions carried out by the U.S. Navy and Marines. AV’s Wildcat surpasses current Group 3 UAS offerings and delivers expanded mission capabilities to effectively address and counter evolving threat landscapes.
Wildcat, tailored for the ANCILLARY program, fulfills DARPA’s requirements with a 450 nautical mile mission radius and over 12 hours of on-station endurance carrying a 60 lbs payload. Notably, it surpasses program benchmarks for sea state recovery and cruise speed, operating in high sea states and winds and reaching over 100 knots for rapid coverage of long distances over sea or land.
With its substantial modular payload capacity, Wildcat enhances mission responsiveness and flexibility, while its tail-sitter design demands minimal infrastructure and footprint in comparison to alternative options. It is engineered to function within a larger fleet of Wildcat UAS, leveraging collision avoidance and autonomy to deconflict airspace and collaborate on search missions in degraded or denied airspace.
“Our solutions are specifically crafted for the operator, and Wildcat is no exception. AV has a strong history of seamlessly integrating our systems into a soldier’s daily operations, and we look forward to further developing this design in partnership with DARPA and the Office of Naval Research for the ANCILLARY program,” continued Fisher.
