Silent Arrow today announced it has been selected by AFWERX for a SBIR contract focused on the Silent Arrow CLS-300 ("Contested Logistics System, 300 Nautical Miles") to address one of the most pressing challenges in the Department of the Air Force (DAF).

The CLS-300 is based on the commercially successful Silent Arrow GD-2000, the world's first heavy payload, autonomous and attritable cargo delivery aircraft designed to carry 1,500 lbs. of cargo over 35 nautical miles when deployed from cargo aircraft such as the Lockheed Martin C-130, Boeing C-17 and Airbus A400M.

Whereas the GD-2000 is a glider, the new CLS-300 can travel nearly 10 times as far by utilising an innovative propulsion unit and propeller system that are inexpensive enough to allow the entire cargo drone to be attritable. In addition to being air droppable, it will also be capable of taking off from the ground including from unimproved surfaces, naval vessels and other launch points.

"We'd like to thank the U.S. Air Force, AFWERX, AFRL and our Air Force Customer and End-User organisations for their confidence in awarding this disruptive program," said Chip Yates, Silent Arrow's Founder and CEO. "We are looking forward to a compressed schedule with propulsion tests in the first half of 2024 followed by flight tests in the second half of 2024 so that we may rapidly deliver this critical capability to warfighters operating in harm's way as well as to humanitarian and disaster relief organisations serving those in need."