US Air Force awards Reliable Robotics aircraft automation contract

Reliable Robotics, a developer of autonomous aircraft systems, was awarded an Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract leveraging the company’s dual-use technology to provide advanced automation to United States Air Force (USAF) airlift and refueling aircraft. The flexible IDIQ contract will span multiple years, and advance the development, production, and deployment of Reliable’s autonomous flight system. The contract is also a vehicle for AFWERX and Reliable Robotics to explore partnerships with other branches of the military and combatant commands to scale and transition Reliable’s advanced automation technologies for specific use cases.

In its quest to develop innovative logistics capabilities, with a focus on the Indo-Pacific, the USAF is seeking commercial technologies like Reliable’s autonomous flight system to enable longer duration operations in contested environments while increasing safety and reducing demands for aircrews and lowering procurement costs.

“Aircraft autonomy is a mission critical capability for the Department of the Air Force. This IDIQ contract is driven by demand from Air Mobility Command, Air Combat Command, Pacific Air Forces and commands that want to employ advanced aircraft automation in their fleets as soon as possible,” said Lt Col Josh Fehd, AFWERX Autonomy Prime Branch Chief.

Reliable has been collaborating with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and AFWERX since 2021 under SBIR contracts, and has demonstrated remote piloting during major exercises such as AGILE FLAG. Reliable was also recently awarded competitive funding under the AFWERX Tactical Funding Increase (TACFI) program. Earlier this year, Reliable delivered a KC-135 Automation Roadmap commissioned by the USAF, validating that Reliable’s commercially developed technology can bring flexible advanced automation to all phases of the KC-135 air-to-air refueling operation.

“IDIQ contract award signals long-term engagement with the Air Force and provides flexibility for us to further demonstrate our autonomous flight system in operational readiness activities, explore automation of more aircraft and deploy production-ready capabilities,” said Dr. David O’Brien, Major General (Ret.), and senior vice president of Government Solutions at Reliable Robotics. “In addition to automating the Cessna 208B Caravan and KC-135 Stratotanker, other aircraft like the Cessna 408 SkyCourier and ISR platforms may also be evaluated under this contract.”

Reliable’s safety-enhancing automation system is aircraft-agnostic, and incorporates redundancy, high integrity navigation, and an always-on autopilot that is engaged through all phases of aircraft operation from taxi to takeoff to landing. The dual-use automation solution converts existing commercial airframes with autonomous flight systems, which can be configured for defense purposes. With FAA oversight, Reliable demonstrated remote operation of two different aircraft types in civilian airspace with no one onboard, a Cessna 172 in 2019 and more recently, a Cessna 208B Caravan in 2023.