American unmanned aerial vehicle logistics company Volansi is set to support the US Air Force (USAF) in developing the next generation of unmanned aircraft.
Voly Defense Solutions (VDS), a subsidiary of the company, was selected by the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) as an official vendor of the USAF’s Skyborg Vanguard Program.
As one of the Skyborg vendors, VDS will be tasked with designing specific, to-be-determined aspects of the experimental aircraft.
Overall, the multiple indefinite-delivery / indefinite-quantity (ID/IQ) contract is worth $400m in subsequent delivery orders.
The plan of selecting multiple companies will help in creating a diverse and competitive vendor pool comprising several non-traditional and traditional contractors.
Volansi co-founder and CEO Hannan Parvizian said: “Instead of awarding a winner-take-all contract, AFLCMC created a pool of competent companies they can rely on to tackle different parts and problems.
“Put these together and the net result will be a portfolio of innovative, state-of-the-art solutions AFLCMC can pull from.”
The Skyborg project seeks to develop capabilities that will help in developing family of unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAV) to meet military requirements.
According to Volansi, 14 aviation companies will collaborate to integrate autonomous attritable UAV technology with open missions systems and enable manned-unmanned teaming.
Earlier this month, AFLCMC awarded three contracts under Skyborg Vanguard programme.
The contracts were won by Boeing, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems and Kratos Unmanned Aerial Systems.
Parvizian added: “This is a great chance to bring recognition to our unique defence capabilities.
“I am confident that our work with Skyborg will allow us to expand our service offering in terms of design, development, and production.”
