DARPA, US Army team to develop combat UAV

摘要

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)vand the US Army are in "the final stages" of negotiating a memorandum of agreement (MoA) outlining the joint development of an Unmanned Combat Armed Rotorcraft (UCAR), according to US Army officials. Work on a UCAR programme was initiated last year with the army considering a partnership with DARPA (Jane's Defence Weekly 5 September 2001). The agency is already working with the army on the A-160 Hummingbird and the Organic Air Vehicle (OAV), both of which are tied to the army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) programme. Robert Kennedy, associate director for aviation technology, Aviation & Missile Research, Development & Engineering Center (AMRDEC), expects to initiate Phase 1 of UCAR development "very soon" since both parties agree on the basic concept. He said UCAR "will be managed at DARPA with lots of support from the US Army".