WASHINGTON: The world’s largest defense company, Lockheed Martin is among the nine new competitors announced yesterday for the Air Force’s vaunted Skyborg program.

Lockheed’s absence among the first round of winners in July raised eyebrows among industry analysts. Its addition means that all three big defense primes (Boeing and Northrop Grumman were tapped in the first phase) with deep ties to the Air Force now are in the running.

The Air Force’s announcement yesterday also revealed that the program will “begin the process of developing air vehicle prototype designs later this calendar year.” Up to now, the effort has largely been focused on the underlying autonomous systems to operate the drones.

UPDATE BEGINS. “An announcement regarding the first delivery order award for the procurement of missionized prototypes can be expected in October,” a spokesperson for Air Force Life Cycle Management Center told Breaking D in an email. UPDATE ENDS.

Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works has been working on next-generation unmanned aerial systems, including the human-machine teaming missions envisioned for Skyborg. Of course, the Skunk Works built the Air Force’s stealthy, and highly classified, RQ-170 Sentinel intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) drone more than a decade ago. And who knows who built the secret prototype of the Next Generation Air Dominance effort, which Will Roper announced earlier this month.

Source: Breaking Defense