After three days of flight demonstrations at the Blue UAS Challenge at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center 29 Palms, Service evaluators selected 23 platforms and 14 unique components and capabilities for National Defense Authorization Act verification and cyber security review. Over the coming months, as these selections complete the verification process, the Blue UAS List and Blue UAS Framework will expand with new additions.

The National Security Innovation Capital (NSIC), a component program within the Defense Innovation Unit awarded a follow-on $2M in non-dilutive funding to Parallel Flight Technologies, a California-based heavy-lift drone and hybrid propulsion technology company. This contract continues support and backing for the operational testing of the Firefly UAS, in advance of its targeted commercial deployment to the DoD and private sectors.

The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and the National Security Innovation Network (NSIN) will run a prize challenge to identify platforms, components, and capabilities for Blue UAS. The challenge will consider First Person View, Group 1, Group 2, and Group 3 platforms, as well as components, capabilities, and software for Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS).

The Air Force Armament Directorate and the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) have partnered to identify and prototype commercial and dual-use technology solutions for an enterprise test vehicle that demonstrates modularity for subsystem upgrade testing.