Air Force’s ‘Skyborg’ Robotic Wingman Will Revolutionize How Air Warfare Is Waged—And How Weapons Are Bought (From Forbes)

The Air Force Research Laboratory is developing a family of robotic air vehicles designed to work with manned aircraft in heavily contested airspace. The program, known as Skyborg, will leverage autonomous vehicle technology, seamless connectivity and open architectures to suppress the defenses of any enemy and accomplish an array of other missions. But Skyborg isn’t just about new capabilities, it is also about new ways of doing business. The Air Force has hired Leidos as system design agent to assure the government owns all the relevant technical data and cannot be locked into reliance on vendors who impede innovation. I have written a commentary for Forbes here.