Advancing Autonomous Drone Constellations for the US Military

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), operating through its Tactical Technology Office, has issued a Request for Information to explore and advance autonomous drone constellations for the US military. Submissions for this inquiry are due by May 15 2026 at 4pm ET. The agency is conducting market research to identify potential vendors and conceptual technologies capable of advancing the autonomous deployment, sustainment and operational support of unmanned aerial vehicles. Specifically, the programme focuses on Group 1-3 drones and the autonomous storage containers required to manage them.

Current Limitations in Constellation Dynamics Existing commercial Group 1-3 airborne platforms are severely limited in their endurance, payload capacity and onboard electrical power. Currently, operating these drones as a constellation demands substantial basing infrastructure and extensive human involvement to recover, recharge and relaunch the aircraft. This lack of autonomy prevents sustained operations that span multiple days.

The landscape of current platform technology contains broad limitations. Electric-based platforms face severe battery discharge depth and recharge cycle limits, which restrict flight times and the number of sorties before substantial performance degradation occurs. Hybrid-electric solutions, while offering longer flight times, add the debilitating weight and complexity of onboard fuel storage, combustion and high-voltage power transfer. Furthermore, fixed-wing platforms typically prohibit compact, autonomous launch and recovery solutions without human intervention, and they lack the ability to hold fixed spatial positions.

The containers used to house these platforms face similar technological hurdles. Existing deployable containers often rely on differential global positioning systems and cannot position themselves effectively in GPS-denied environments. They frequently lack the internal volume allocations necessary for the communication equipment and fuel storage required to sustain a constellation for multi-day continuous missions. Furthermore, modern container designs are generally optimised for battery-powered drones with low range and endurance, leaving them incapable of supporting alternative fuel sources necessary for extended flight times. While some existing solutions can deploy hundreds of drones in under a minute, they typically lack the ability to integrate external payloads.

Category 1: Fully Autonomous Drones To overcome these barriers, the Tactical Technology Office is seeking information on US manufactured and assembled drones in the Group 1-3 space. Proposed drone designs must form a mission-focused, collaborative constellation of up to 500 platforms, though the precise number may vary as a function of the payload type.

A primary requirement is autonomy level 4, meaning no human participation is required except for the initial mission definition. Once an operator issues a command, the constellation must maintain its own autonomy. The drones must feature continuous electrical power available to payloads, utilise low-cost commercial construction and be sized appropriately for containerised storage. Crucially, the systems must incorporate advanced constellation management software capable of path optimisation, collision avoidance planning, formation flying and constellation reshaping.

Category 2: Autonomous Storage Containers The second category focuses on the storage containers that will provide fully autonomous drone storage, logistics management, launch, recovery and refuelling. These must conform to the intention of a standardised military container, such as a Conex, an ISU container or 463L pallets. However, DARPA will also consider innovative and non-standard containers, including suitcase-based distributed systems or box-based systems, provided they remain compatible with current military transport capabilities.

The vision for these containers is that they must operate self-sufficiently, featuring multi-day energy storage, integrated communication equipment and robust computing capabilities.

The Operational Use-Case The agency has outlined a mission-adjacent scenario to guide responders. A transportable container is deployed to an austere, GPS-denied environment in suboptimal terrain. Upon receiving remote operator inputs, the container activates and autonomously deploys a series of platforms from a single area. The constellation of drones traverses to a designated radius and loiters on-station with an active payload. The platforms are not necessarily required to hold the same location or carry identical payloads. After executing their mission, the drones return to the launch area, autonomously recover, refuel and launch again to repeat the mission in a continuous operational cycle lasting extended hours or days.

Submission Guidelines and Technical Metrics Organisations may respond to either one or both categories. Responses must be submitted as a single integrated document in either Microsoft Word or unprotected PDF format. Submissions must be highly concise, limited to five pages for each category, meaning a complete response addressing both the drones and the containers must not exceed 10 pages. Documents must use 12-point font and 1-inch margins.

Responders are required to complete highly specific data tables. Business information requirements include providing the company registered address, a point of contact, the commercial and government entity code, the unique entity identifier, and confirmation of whether the company meets the definition of a nontraditional defence contractor.

Technically, respondents must provide precise size, weight, and power metrics. For example, the container data table requires the gross empty weight, external dimensions, maximum continuous internal power in watts, allocated internal drone volume and allocated internal fuel volume. Operationally, organisations must detail the maximum number of drones in storage, the maximum number launched, recovered and recharged per minute, and the specific fuel type used, such as JP-5 or LiPo 5S2P.

Security Protocols and Classified Submissions Given the sensitive nature of military research, the Request for Information enforces strict security protocols. Submissions containing controlled unclassified information must be appropriately marked in accordance with DoDI 5200.48, and applicants must ensure their information systems satisfy the necessary security requirements, such as NIST SP 800-171.

For classified white papers, applicants must ensure that all personnel, industrial and information systems processing requirements, including facility clearance levels, are in place. Classified submissions must be marked in accordance with the organisation’s governing security classification guide, which must be provided to the DARPA program security representative alongside written authorisation. Submissions requiring DARPA to make a final classification determination must be explicitly marked as pending final review by the program security representative, with a recommended classification level inserted.

If a submission contains both classified and unclassified information, the portions may be separated. The unclassified portion should contain as much information as possible and be submitted via email, while the classified portion must be provided separately. Digital formats on CD-ROM are preferred for classified material, submitted as a single searchable PDF.

Confidential and secret classified information must be handled strictly in accordance with the DoD Information Security Manual. It may be transmitted electronically via an appropriate and verified computer system, hand-carried by an authorised cleared courier to the DARPA classified document registry, or mailed via US Postal Service registered mail. If mailed, the classified information must be double-wrapped. The inner envelope must be explicitly marked with the assigned classification and addressed to the TTO front office, while the outer envelope must be completely sealed with no identification regarding the classification of its contents.

DARPA will not provide reimbursement for costs incurred while responding to this notice. Any proprietary information must be specifically marked as ‘Proprietary’, and the agency will disclose submission contents only for the purpose of review by the government and its bound support contractors