US Army seeks commercially available attritable UASs for demonstration

PBAS is intended to be commercially available off-the-shelf, much like the Skydio X2D (pictured here), selected to fulfil the first tranche of the Short-Range Reconnaissance requirement. (Skydio)

The US Army is seeking attritable first-person view (FPV) unmanned aircraft systems (UASs), according to a sources sought notification published on 16 April. While the service's desired vehicle size and performance are unclear, the Purpose Built Attritable System (PBAS) UASs are intended to be commercially available, reconfigurable, and disposable.

The UASs are primarily intended for use as intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) target acquisition, with a secondary role as communications relays and tertiary roles as carrying munitions and providing electronic warfare support. However, the aircraft are meant to be easily reconfigurable with different payloads, which may lend themselves to other missions.

They are meant to provide “increased maneuverability, precise lethal payload delivery, and operator concealability” for small manoeuvre units, according to the solicitation.

Selected aircraft are to take part in a demonstration “in support of the United States Army maneuver elements”, the solicitation said. Although the service runs several ongoing technology demonstration programmes, including the Project Convergence – Capstone series, it is publicly unknown whether PBAS will be evaluated at a bespoke demonstration or a pre-existing one.

The army declined to comment, citing a media blackout over the programme; no other programmes are affected, and the rational for it is unclear.

For more information, please see US Army selects Teal Drones for Short Range Reconnaissance requirement .