DARPA awarded GA in June a contract for Phase 3 of its LongShot effort with a $94 million price tag. The program seeks to increase the engagement range and effectiveness of air-to-air weapons. DARPA’s LongShot program aims to develop an air-launched unmanned air vehicle (UAV) that can employ multiple air-to-air weapons. DARPA has awarded contracts to three significant companies, General Atomics, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, for preliminary Phase I design work. The Agency will continue the next Phase with only GA. The UAV will perform its maiden flight in December and later demonstrate its capacity to fire air-to-air missiles from UAV. LongShot will increase the survivability of manned platforms by keeping them far from enemy threats, but LongShot UAV will fire missiles for more effective missile shots at close range.
GA’s LongShot UAV to Start Flight Tests in December
