Back to news

April 17, 2020 | International, Aerospace

Roper Sees Air Force ‘Flying Cars’ In Production By 2023

"We are going to accelerate this market for domestic use in a way that also helps our military," Roper stressed. "The Air Force is all in."

By on April 16, 2020 at 7:15 PM

WASHINGTON: ‘Flying cars' using electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) technology could be in full-up production for Air Force use in moving cargo and people within three years, says Air Force acquisition head Will Roper.

Such a capability, Roper enthused, would give the US military the ability to undertake missions “in three dimensions that we normally do in two,” giving the services “much greater agility.” This is why the Air Force program for investing in commercial firms now pursuing eVTOL vehicles is called “Agility Prime,” he noted.

The Air Force will take a first look at vendor offerings in a virtual pitch event at the end of the month, with a focus on small eVTOL vehicles that could be used for missions involving transport of only a few people.

Roper told reporters today that the size of any future Air Force vehicle buys would depend on what missions eVTOL vehicles prove capable of carrying out. “If it's helping us to do logistics at the edge, we could end up buying these in higher quantities. If it's things like security and rescue, it will be smaller quantities,” he explained.

Roper has previously said he envisions large flying cars for carrying cargo, as well as smaller vehicles for Special Operations-type missions.

But no matter what, Roper added that he expects that granting commercial producers Air Force safety certifications and allowing them to rack up flying hours under Agility Prime “will really help accelerate domestic use of these vehicles and [allow some companies to] get FAA certification sooner that it would have come if we had not interjected ourselves into the market.”

The Agility Prime program will hold a “virtual launch event” April 27 to allow vendors to showcase their capabilities and interact with potential investors from both the private sector and the military, the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) announced earlier this week. Roper, who will give a keynote, said the event originally had been planned as a live demonstration of capabilities by chosen vendors at the annual South By Southwest music festival in Austin that was scheduled for March 13-22, but cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The objective of the event is to reinforce the Air Force commitment to partnering with industry, investors, and the interagency to help ensure there is a robust domestic capability in this new aerospace sector,” AFLCMC explained.

Agility Prime is designed as a “challenge” where eVTOL vehicle makers compete in a series of demonstration that ultimately could result in a contract for full-scale production. According to documents provided for potential competitors on the program website, the Air Force is asking potential vendors to be able to complete a flight test by Dec. 17. In the first round, companies will need to demonstrate the following specifications:

  • Payload: 3-8 personnel
  • Range: Greater than 100 miles
  • Speed: Greater than 100 mph
  • Endurance: Greater than 60 minutes

Roper said the second round of the competition would be dedicated to larger vehicles for cargo, and multiple people.

Agility Prime is a unique effort that involves a number of service entities working together, including AFLCMC, the Program Executive Office for Mobility, Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), the Air Force Warfighting Integration Capability (AFWIC) office, AFWERX, and the new AFVentures office that serves as an intermediary between vendors and venture capital providers.

Roper said that besides helping to move the US into a prime spot in an emerging marketplace, he intends Agility Prime to also serve as an example to the commercial sector that the Air Force is serious about being “a good innovation partner.”

One of the hallmarks of Roper's term as Air Force acquisition chief has been his focus on figuring out how to leverage commercial research and development to help DoD ensure that it can stay ahead of China in the pursuit of new technology — arguing that innovation is the new battlefield.

https://breakingdefense.com/2020/04/roper-sees-air-force-flying-cars-in-production-by-2023

On the same subject

  • Essor de l’industrie spatiale chinoise et enjeux stratégiques mondiaux

    April 9, 2021 | International, Aerospace

    Essor de l’industrie spatiale chinoise et enjeux stratégiques mondiaux

    Le Figaro consacre un article à la montée en puissance de l'industrie spatiale chinoise et à ses enjeux stratégiques, notamment face aux Etats-Unis. La Chine a lancé plus de fusées dans l'espace que tout autre pays au cours des trois dernières années, ainsi que des missions vers la Lune et vers Mars, et développe des systèmes d'armement spatiaux capables de menacer les satellites militaires et commerciaux, relève Le Figaro. « Les activités spatiales de la Chine et de la Russie représentent des menaces sérieuses et croissantes pour la sécurité nationale des États-Unis », a déclaré le nouveau secrétaire américain à la Défense, Lloyd Austin, lors de son audition par le Sénat en janvier dernier. « Les doctrines militaires chinoises et russes indiquent également qu'elles considèrent l'espace comme essentiel à la guerre moderne et envisagent l'utilisation de capacités antisatellites comme un moyen de réduire l'efficacité militaire des États-Unis et de gagner les guerres futures », a-t-il souligné, ajoutant :« Si la Russie est un adversaire de premier plan, la Chine est une menace grandissante ». Le Figaro du 9 avril

  • CISA Launches New Portal to Improve Cyber Reporting | CISA

    August 29, 2024 | International, C4ISR, Security

    CISA Launches New Portal to Improve Cyber Reporting | CISA

  • German industry lead prepares for possible collapse of TLVS anti-missile program

    December 7, 2020 | International, Land

    German industry lead prepares for possible collapse of TLVS anti-missile program

    By: Sebastian Sprenger COLOGNE, Germany — The German arm of MBDA said it will “restructure” its operations following signals from Berlin that the government is having second thoughts about the company's pet project, the TLVS air defense system. The move comes after European consortium MBDA and its American partner Lockheed Martin held out hope for years that their follow-on work on the former Medium Extended Air Defense System — which included the United States, Germany and Italy — would eventually yield a contract with the German military, or Bundeswehr. Up to now, the vendors invested some money of their own in the effort, believing the system's features would revolutionize a global air defense market dominated by the Patriot system. But MBDA now thinks a contract still won't materialize next year, the company said in a statement. In addition, the statement noted that Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer announced a reevaluation of the Bundeswehr's entire air defense portfolio. Such reviews typically are telling indicators that governments want fresh thinking on a given subject and are willing to scrap long-standing plans. In the case of TLVS, Kramp-Karrenbauer's recent emphasis on “layers” in missile defense, a common way to conceptualize the technology, could mean the system is no longer thought to serve the sweet spot in intercepting aircraft, missiles or drones at various heights and distances. Late last month, lawmakers only included a token sum of €2 million (U.S. $2.4 million) for TLVS in the defense budget for next year. While there is an opportunity to add funds midyear, including some kind of bridge funding until the Defence Ministry's goals are more clear, the companies are seeing their prospects diminish. It remains to be seen how the ministry would shape the narrative about canceling a program once held up as a poster child of German defense procurement reform. Officials set the program up with the idea of delegating as much development risk to the contractors as possible, at a fixed price. Combined with the gradual addition of new feature requests, like hypersonic intercept and lasers, that approach began to look untenable for both sides over the summer. https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2020/12/04/german-industry-lead-prepares-for-possible-collapse-of-tlvs-anti-missile-program/

All news