Silent Arrow® Wins Competitive Air Force Contract to Develop 200 Mile Contested Logistics Drone

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Nov 18, 2024, 08:43 ET

AFRL Direct to Phase II contract will fund the development, build and flight test of 6 Silent Arrow® CLS-200 aircraft to carry 500 pounds over 200 nautical miles.

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 18, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Silent Arrow today announced it has been selected by The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) for a $1.8M Direct to Phase II SBIR contract focused on building and flight testing the Silent Arrow CLS-200 ("Contested Logistics System, 200 Nautical Miles") attritable special missions Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS).

The CLS-200 relies on the foundational engineering of the commercially successful Silent Arrow GD-2000, the world's first heavy payload, autonomous and attritable cargo delivery aircraft to enter full-rate production.

A Silent Arrow GD-2000 carrying a 1,000-pound payload is loaded aboard an MC-130J for deployment in the INDOPACOM AOR with a United States partner nation. A total of 73 Silent Arrow GD-2000s have been built to date and the platform has entered full rate production in the UK.

A Silent Arrow GD-2000 carrying a 1,000-pound payload is loaded aboard a C-130H for deployment in the CENTCOM AOR with a United States partner nation. The foundational engineering of the GD-2000 is enabling rapid design, build and flight test of the AFRL-funded Silent Arrow CLS-200.

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 partnered with Silent Arrow to distribute and support the GD-2000 heavy cargo delivery UAS platform throughout European market segments.

Whereas the GD-2000 is an unpowered glider, the new CLS-200 can travel six times as far by utilizing an innovative propulsion unit and propeller system that are inexpensive enough to allow the entire cargo drone to be single-use. In addition to being air droppable, it will also be capable of taking off from the ground including from unimproved surfaces, naval vessels and other launch points.

"We'd like to thank the U.S. Air Force, AFRL and our Air Force Customer and End-User organizations for expanding Silent Arrow's warfighter offerings by awarding this competitive Direct to Phase II," said Chip Yates, Silent Arrow's Founder and CEO. "The flight testing at our Pendleton, Oregon facility will be exciting as we longline airdrop 5 units from our UH-1H rotorcraft and then deliver a 6^th unit to the Air Force for their hands-on evaluation."

About Silent Arrow
The Silent Arrow® product line consists of five attritable, autonomous cargo delivery aircraft capable of carrying 350 to 2,000 pounds of emergency, disaster relief and humanitarian response supplies anywhere in the world on short notice. The Silent Arrow GD-2000, Widebody, SA-PGB, CLS-200 and CLS-300 provide a wide array of contested logistics capabilities to the warfighter. Silent Arrow's engineering team has been awarded more than 22 patents, 6 Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) aircraft world records and 2 FAI Louis Bleriot medals for disruptive contributions to the aerospace industry. In 2021 Silent Arrow® was selected as a finalist for the Robert J. Collier Trophy as the "Greatest Achievement in Aeronautics or Astronautics in America," and in 2024 a Silent Arrow flight test aircraft, N23SA, was accepted into the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. For more information visit www.Silent-Arrow.com.

About AFRL
The Air Force Research Laboratory is the primary scientific research and development center for the Department of the Air Force. AFRL plays an integral role in leading the discovery, development, and integration of affordable warfighting technologies for our air, space and cyberspace force. With a workforce of more than 12,500 across nine technology areas and 40 other operations across the globe, AFRL provides a diverse portfolio of science and technology ranging from fundamental to advanced research and technology development. For more information, visit www.afresearchlab.com.

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Air Force, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. government.

AFRL Cleared: 13 Nov 2024, Case Number: AFRL-2024-6313

Contact:
Greg Fehrenbach
+1 714-296-9737
[email protected]

SOURCE Silent Arrow