General Atomics’ Gambit moves to flight testing under AFRL’s autonomous drone project

WASHINGTON — The Air Force is nearing a test of General Atomics’ new Gambit drone, according to the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) official responsible for the effort.

AFRL is “projecting first flight in first half of FY24 [fiscal 2024],” Trenton White, Off-Board Sensing Station (OBSS) program manager, told Breaking Defense in an email Feb. 6.

The OBSS effort is somewhat mysterious, with lab officials reluctant to provide too much detail due to “operational security.” But in essence, the program is aimed at demonstrating an unmanned aircraft — with high levels of autonomy and an exquisite sensor suite — that can fly beyond the line of sight of fourth- and fifth-generation fighter jets, and send back targeting data and other information about potential threats.

According to a General Atomics’ Feb. 2 press release, the “Gambit Series aircraft will validate the ‘genus/species’ concept first developed by AFRL as part of the Low-Cost Attritable Aircraft Platform Sharing (LCAAPS) program focused on building several aircraft variants from a common core chassis. LCAAPS is a major air vehicle effort under AFRL’s Autonomous Collaborative Enabling Technologies (ACET) portfolio, which is focused on developing technologies for Autonomous Collaborative Platforms (ACP).”

“Attritable” is Air Force jargon meaning inexpensive enough that its loss can be tolerated in combat. The service also intends such aircraft to have a limited life span compared to fighters and bombers, and to carry a much lighter logistics tail.

The new AFRL contract, the value of which neither the lab nor GA has revealed, is a follow-on to a $17.8 million award to the company in October 2021, along with a parallel contract worth $17.7 million to competitor Kratos, for OBSS conceptual designs.

In response to a request for comment from Breaking Defense, a Kratos spokesperson said: “Kratos Unmanned has several ongoing programs across the span of the jet UAS arena and cannot discuss specifics on this program.”

White elaborated the under the new contract with General Atomics, the program “will prove that an aircraft based on a platform sharing approach can be designed, built and flown. This effort leverages commercial industry product line development methods that have been proven to reduce cost and time to market. Cost data is being collected to validate this approach.

“The OBSS program will establish an open, Government-owned core chassis that facilitates technology integration and enables rapid development of a family of systems, improving responsiveness to changing needs,” he added.