Silent Arrow to build 300–500-mile, one-way loitering cargo drone

Air Force Phase II to fund test flights of the Silent Arrow CLS-300, which carries 1,000 lb payload between 300-500 nautical miles in contested environments.

https://silent-arrow.com/
https://silent-arrow.com/
Silent Arrow

Silent Arrow has been selected by AFWERX for a SBIR Phase II contract in the amount of $1.25M focused on the Silent Arrow CLS-300 ("Contested Logistics System, 300nm Range") powered cargo drone to address the most pressing challenges in the Department of the Air Force (DAF). The Air Force Research Laboratory and AFWERX, have partnered to streamline the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) process by accelerating the small business experience through faster proposal to award timelines, changing the pool of potential applicants by expanding opportunities to small business and eliminating bureaucratic overhead by continually implementing process improvement changes in contract execution. The DAF began offering the Open Topic SBIR/STTR program in 2018 which expanded the range of innovations the DAF funded and now Silent Arrow will start its journey to create and provide innovative capabilities that will strengthen the national defense of the United States of America.

© Silent Arrow | https://silent-arrow.com/

Conceptual view of the Silent Arrow CLS-300, designed to
carry 1,000 pounds of cargo between 300-500 nautical miles.

 

“We'd like to thank the U.S. Air Force, AFWERX, AFRL and our Air Force Customer and End-User organizations for expanding our successful partnership by awarding this follow-on Phase II,” says Chip Yates, Silent Arrow's Founder and CEO. “We look forward to building on our Phase I propulsion test success as we prepare a number of full-scale aircraft for flight tests in Q3 and Q4 of 2025.”