US awards Off-Boarding Sensing Station development contracts

The Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie demonstrator is one of a number of unmanned ‘loyal wingmen' projects that the US Air Force is working on. The Department of Defense has contracted Kratos and General Atomics to develop the Off-Boarding Sensing Station that is geared at reducing the cost of such attritable UAVs. (US Air Force )

The US Department of Defense (DoD) has contracted Kratos Unmanned Aerial Systems Inc and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc to develop the Off-Boarding Sensing Station (OBSS) for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

The awards, made on 25 October for Kratos and 26 October for General Atomics, are valued at USD17.6 million and USD17.7 million, respectively, and will both run through to 31 October 2022. If all options are exercised, the two contracts are valued at USD49 million each, and will run through to 31 January 2024.

“This contract provides for a design, development, and flight demonstration in an open architecture aircraft concept to achieve the goals of rapid time-to-market and low acquisition cost,” the DoD said of both awards.

Beyond the contract announcements, not much has been made public about the OBSS effort. Commenting on its participation, Kratos noted that it falls under the Air Force Research Laboratory's Autonomous Collaborative Platforms technology maturation portfolio.

The OBSS is geared at reducing the cost of attritable UAVs to be developed as ‘loyal wingmen' for manned combat aircraft. The US is working on a number of such projects, namely Skyborg, LongShot, and the Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie demonstrator.