The U.S. Air Force has awarded Minco Technologies of Cookeville, Tennessee, a contract valued at as much as $13.6 million to develop a next-generation unmanned plane engine designed to dramatically scale back gas consumption and enhance operational flexibility.
The mission goals to create a modular, fuel-flexible propulsion system that would minimize the logistical gas provide chain by as a lot as 50 % — a doubtlessly transformative functionality for future drone operations.
According to the Department of War, the contract will fund the “Modular Operationally Resilient Fuel-Flexible Extreme-Efficiency UAS-Engine System,” a expertise improvement and demonstration program targeted on advancing powerplant effectivity and flexibility for unmanned aerial programs (UAS).
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Work can be carried out in Cookeville, Tennessee, with an anticipated completion date of August 30, 2028.
The award was the results of a aggressive acquisition course of, with one proposal acquired. The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Wright Site, based mostly at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, is overseeing this system underneath contract quantity FA2394-25-C-B056.
The Pentagon has more and more emphasised the necessity to make logistics extra resilient in contested environments, the place gas convoys and ahead provide traces are weak to disruption. By enabling UAS platforms to function on a wider vary of gas varieties and eat much less of it, the brand new engine system may play a key position in lowering these vulnerabilities.
The Air Force envisions unmanned programs working farther from established bases and sustaining operations longer with out the identical stage of gas resupply. A propulsion system that cuts the logistical footprint in half wouldn’t solely decrease operational danger but in addition improve the pliability of how and the place UAS platforms may be deployed.
