Silent Arrow® wins competitive Air Force contract to develop a contested 200-mile logistics drone

Silent arrow has announced that it has been selected by The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) for a $1.8 million Direct to Phase II SBIR contract focused on building and testing the Silent Arrow CLS-200 (“Contested Logistics System, 200 Nautical Miles”), assignable special missions Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS).

The CLS-200 relies on the fundamental engineering of the commercially successful Silent Arrow GD-2000, the world’s first autonomous and retractable heavy-lift cargo delivery aircraft to enter full-speed production.

The GD-2000 has been deployed in the United States and in multiple overseas countries from a variety of aircraft, including the C-130H, MC-130J, C-27J and Airbus A400M. Mass production is based in the UK and led by Silent Arrow manufacturing partner The MEL Group under AS9100, with Airbus DS Airborne Solutions GmbH also working with Silent Arrow to distribute and distribute the GD-2000 UAS heavy cargo delivery platform in European market segments to support.

While the GD-2000 is a non-powered glider, the new CLS-200 can travel six times as far using an innovative propulsion unit and propeller system that are cheap enough to make the entire cargo drone a single-use vehicle. The device can not only be dropped from the air, but can also take off from the ground, including from undeveloped surfaces, naval vessels and other launch points.

“We would like to thank the U.S. Air Force, AFRL and our Air Force customers and end-user organizations for expanding Silent Arrow’s fighter aircraft offering by awarding this competitive Direct to Phase II,” said Chip Yates, founder and CEO of Silent Arrow. “The test flights at our Pendleton, Oregon facility will be exciting as we longline drop five units of our UH-1H rotorcraft and then deliver a sixth unit to the Air Force for their practical evaluation.”