The Department of Defense’s innovation arm and acquisition office have added small unmanned aircraft systems from eight companies to DOD’s cleared list of drones as part of the second iteration of the Blue sUAS project.
DOD will not require these cleared unmanned platforms to secure an exception to policy to buy or operate since these drones have undergone an NDAA compliance check and cybersecurity assessment, the Defense Innovation Unit said Friday.
The authorized drones as part of the Blue sUAS 2.0 project are:
- AltaX from Freefly Systems
- eBee Tac from senseFly
- H6 HE, H6 Hydrone and H6 from Harris Aerial
- IF750 and IF1200 from Inspired Flight
- Intense Eye V2 from BlueHalo
- Osprey Hexacopter from Easy Aerial
- Spirit from Ascent AeroSystems
- WingtraOne from Wingtra
“The Blue UAS Cleared List will provide a common approval standard that can save the Services time and money, inform acquisition policy updates, and make it easier for troops to gain access to previously inaccessible commercial tech,” said David Michelson, DIU program manager for Blue UAS.
In October 2021, DIU signed agreements with 11 nontraditional contractors to take part in a pilot program that seeks to prototype an approval process to facilitate the onboarding of small drones while expanding the availability of new capabilities to all service branches.
In August 2020, DIU approved sUAS from five vendors as part of the Blue sUAS 1.0 initiative.
