Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, has completed initial ground and flight testing of its Nomad 100 uncrewed aerial system (UAS) in collaboration with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Early VTOL Aircraft Demonstration (EVADE) program.
The milestone marks another step toward delivering high-performing uncrewed systems to servicemembers operating in rapidly evolving, contested environments. Lockheed Martin’s innovation investments are advancing next-generation autonomy and crewed-uncrewed teaming capabilities designed to provide operators at the tactical edge with speed, precision and mission-critical reliability in demanding conditions.
“Nomad 100’s ongoing flight testing reflects our commitment to advancing autonomous technology while delivering safe and reliable mission capabilities that equip customers to fill critical operational gaps,” said Rich Benton, vice president and general manager, Sikorsky. “Nomad will serve as part of a crewed-uncrewed team complementing missions anywhere from austere forward operating bases to ship decks and unimproved landing zones.”
Sikorsky will next advance Nomad 100 through an intensive flight test campaign at a government facility, replicating a range of multirole Nomad 100 missions.
The Nomad 100 is a variant of Sikorsky’s rotor blown wing architecture, providing the vertical lift and hover capabilities of a helicopter with the speed, range and endurance of a fixed-wing aircraft.
Its twin prop-rotor system enables vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL), hover, cruise on the wing and runway-independent operations in all-weather conditions across land and sea.
Nomad aircraft are designed to operate as part of teams of crewed and uncrewed platforms to deliver integrated, full-spectrum mission solutions.
Nomad represents Sikorsky’s entry into the UAS market, combining decades of rotorcraft and autonomy expertise with AI, advanced manufacturing and electric propulsion to develop a high-performance, lower-cost and scalable VTOL platform for next-generation uncrewed aerial applications.
DARPA selected Sikorsky’s MATRIX™ autonomous technology as the autonomy solution to be integrated into all five platforms participating in the EVADE program.
Sikorsky’s other fully autonomous platforms include the S-70UAS™ U-Hawk™ and the hybrid electric demonstrator (HEX), which are also enabled by MATRIX autonomous technology. MATRIX is described as an autonomy system for safe and reliable operations, with more than 1,000 flight hours logged, more than 500 successful tests and demonstrations, more than 100 operators trained from the Department of War and firefighting communities, and more than 20 different platforms integrated to date.
