DARPA wants its UAVs to ‘fall upwards’
by CanadianManufacturing.com Staff
The Applied Physics Lab at the University of Washington will be a part of the Sparton team to provide additional deep ocean design expertise.
DE LEON SPRINGS, Fla.—Electromechanical design and engineering firm Sparton Corp. was awarded a Phase 1 contract for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Upward Falling Payload (UFP) program.
Under the UFP program, Sparton will design a system intended to “hibernate” on the sea floor for years and, when engaged, shoot up to the surface and deploy unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and other payloads.
Sparton has been developing and delivering solutions for the Undersea Warfare (USW) and Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) for 60 yeard, expertise which should help to develop a Universal Payload Delivery System module for the UFP program.
The Applied Physics Lab at the University of Washington will be a part of the Sparton team to provide additional deep ocean design expertise.
“Sparton is energized by the opportunity and eager for the collaboration to execute on the delivery system module,” said Jim Lackemacher, vice-president and general manager of Sparton Defense and Security Systems.
Headquartered in Schaumburg, IL, Sparton currently has 1,300 employees and six manufacturing locations worldwide.
Read a concise explanation of the project on ExtremeTech.com
