AFWERX Awards Darkhive 4 Contracts on Small Drone Technology

Autonomous uncrewed systems developer Darkhive announced on Thursday that it has received four contracts worth nearly $5 million from the Air Force Research Laboratory’s AFWERX technology directorate. 

The small unmanned aircraft systems technology deals consist of two Small Business Innovation Research Phase II, one Direct-to-Phase II and one Small Business Technology Transfer Phase II contracts, Darkhive said. 

The AFRL and AFWERX’s SBIR and STTR processes accelerate small business development through faster awards, broader opportunities for small businesses and avoiding bureaucratic contract execution red tape.

Darkhive said it provides U.S.-made uncrewed systems with open hardware and software interfaces to enhance situational awareness.

In July, Darkhive secured a $5 million SBIR indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity AFWERX Prime contract for uncrewed aerial systems integration and autonomy software testing.

In August, the company announced that it received from the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering a $1M contract for enhancing small autonomous drones’ capabilities to support the Department of Defense’s strategic missions.

The San Antonio, Texas-based Darkhive noted that it secured an other transaction agreement with the Defense Innovation Unit’s National Security Innovation Capital initiative, which focuses on funding critical technologies to accelerate hardware production.