Air Force Gives XWing Approval to Fly Unmanned Missions Across California

<div><strong>SAN FRANCISCO<&sol;strong> &&num;8212&semi;  <a class&equals;"ww&lowbar;lnktrkr" href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;xwing&period;com&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"nofollow noopener">Xwing<&sol;a>&comma; a leading supplier of modular autonomy technology for aviation&comma; has announced the successful completion of its recent participation in AGILE FLAG 24-1&period; The company transported mission-critical cargo with daily autonomous missions throughout the week-long exercise&comma; accumulating over 2&comma;800 autonomous flight miles to military bases and civilian airports&comma; including March Air Reserve Base&comma; Vandenberg Space Force Base&comma; Sacramento McClellan Airport&comma; Meadows Field Airport&comma; and Fresno Yosemite International Airport&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We saw first-hand during AGILE FLAG that the use of Xwing’s autonomous aircraft eliminated the need to fly a larger aircraft such as a C-130 to deliver critical cargo to the warfighter on short notice&comma;” said Maxime Gariel&comma; President&comma; CTO and co-founder of Xwing&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;When you fly missions autonomously&comma; you operate with the speed and efficiency required for dispersed ACE operations&comma; delivering cargo and personnel at a much lower cost and risk&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>AGILE FLAG 24-1 was a Total Force exercise&comma; which ran from January 22 &&num;8211&semi; February 4&comma; 2024 bringing together Air Combat Command &lpar;ACC&rpar; and Air Mobility Command &lpar;AMC&rpar; at military bases and public airports throughout California centered on Agile Combat Employment&period; After rigorous safety and technical assessments of the Xwing aircraft and operations&comma; the Air Force awarded Xwing a Military Flight Release &lpar;MFR&rpar; to operate their autonomous aircraft for Public Aircraft Operations &lpar;PAO&rpar;&period; These approvals allowed Xwing to deliver official Air Force cargo with autonomous taxis&comma; takeoffs&comma; and landings at military and civilian installations&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Achieving an Air Force Military Flight Release certification is a momentous milestone removing the barrier to transition and unlocking key testing and experimentation opportunities&comma;” said Kate Brown&comma; AFWERX Autonomy Prime deputy branch chief&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;AGILE FLAG was an opportunity to showcase autonomous light cargo logistics and demonstrate operational relevance and increased technical readiness&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A core component of ACE operations is the ability to flexibly execute dispersed logistics to unsurveyed locations with little or no ground support&period; Air Force operational leaders assigned Xwing cargo missions based on real-time logistics needs of the exercise&period; This included delivery of sensitive weather equipment and other critical cargo to various locations throughout the week-long event&comma; and demonstrated an increase in the speed to deliver critical parts and reduced the number of requests for traditional heavy lift aircraft&comma; the two key enablers that autonomous aircraft offer operational commanders&period; The exercise required Xwing to navigate through the busy Los Angeles basin&comma; where the autonomous aircraft successfully integrated with heavy traffic at March ARB and complied with Air Traffic Control &lpar;ATC&rpar; instructions&period; Xwing successfully illustrated the role of autonomy as a force multiplier and risk mitigator to rapidly disperse contingency operations into unknown&comma; contested&comma; degraded or operationally limited &lpar;CDO&rpar; environments&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Our technology has proven effective over hundreds of successful autonomous flights&comma;” said Craig Milliard&comma; Xwing Flight Test Manager&comma; who remotely supervised the flights from a ground control station at Sacramento McClellan Airport&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;This exercise gave us the opportunity to stretch the operational envelope into new environments&comma; day and night&comma; with real-world cargo proving that we can effectively complete Air Force mission objectives&period;”<&sol;p><&sol;div>&NewLine;

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