WOODINVILLE, Wash., April 13, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Freefly Systems Inc. an American corporation that designs and manufactures the world's toughest drones, today announced that the Freefly Systems Alta X unmanned aerial system (UAS) has been approved as a trusted drone platform after successfully completing the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Defense Innovation Unit’s (DIU) Blue sUAS 2.0 testing, evaluation, and demonstration programs.
In October 2021, DIU issued 11 agreements with non-traditional vendors to participate in the Blue sUAS 2.0 pilot program to prototype a new approval process for dual-use technologies while significantly increasing the variety of capabilities available to the Department of Defense. This expansion will provide additional sUAS capabilities requested by the DoD and its federal partners, including infrastructure inspection, mapping, public safety, and many other applications.
Policy compliant commercial UAS, once vetted by the Blue UAS On-Ramp effort, do not require a continuous exception to DoD policy renewal, reducing the administrative burden on end users. The Blue UAS program is not an exclusive path for government validation of UAS, however it is built with the intention of being the most efficient method available for commercial systems.
The Blue UAS Cleared List provides a common DoD approval standard that can save the U.S. Government time and money, inform acquisition policy updates, and increase access to commercial technology.
Following a decade of development, Alta X is Freefly Systems’ sixth-generation of the world’s toughest drone ecosystem. Designed and manufactured in the U.S.A., the all-electric Alta X multi-rotor aircraft is extremely versatile and can be custom configured to support a variety of mission requirements. Built around an open architecture, Alta X delivers precision flight performance, VTOL, expectational endurance, and maximum payload flexibility. The system offers up to 35 lbs of usable payload capacity, accommodates a variety of integrated sensors and third-party payloads including gimbaled EO/IR, survey grade RTK/PPK mapping cameras, LiDAR, hyperspectral sensors, and drop/delivery capabilities. Alta X folds down to half its deployed size making it single person packable and quick to deploy. Utilizing the highest quality components, our exhaustive testing provides operators the confidence they deserve in the most demanding environments.
