{"id":23970,"date":"2018-01-08T18:23:26","date_gmt":"2018-01-08T18:23:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2018\/01\/08\/aurora-ceo-optimistic-about-future-of-long-endurance-drones\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:00:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:00:29","slug":"aurora-ceo-optimistic-about-future-of-long-endurance-drones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2018\/01\/08\/aurora-ceo-optimistic-about-future-of-long-endurance-drones\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the Air Force changing its mind on long-endurance drones?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 The U.S. Air Force has been resistant to buy ultrahigh-endurance drones, but a recent $48 million investment in the technology could signify that the service is changing its mind about its requirements, the head of Aurora Flight Sciences said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Wednesday, Aurora Flight Sciences announced that the Air Force had awarded it a $48 million contract to create a certified version of its Orion medium altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Orion holds the world record for the longest flight performed by a drone. In December 2014, the UAS stayed aloft for more than 80 hours without needing to land or be refueled, but Aurora claims the aircraft\u2019s endurance can stretch even longer: up to 100 hours with payloads weighing more than 1,000 pounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yet Aurora, now a subsidiary of Boeing, has struggled to get the Air Force to adopt the technology. Lt. Gen. Robert Otto, formerly deputy chief of staff of the Air Force for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), <a href=\"https:\/\/breakingdefense.com\/2015\/11\/aurora-flight-sciences-ceo-takes-otto-to-task\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">said in 2015<\/a> that the service didn\u2019t have a requirement for an aircraft with more endurance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the status quo may be changing. On Thursday, Otto\u2019s successor, Lt. Gen. VeraLinn \u201cDash\u201d Jamieson said that the service intends to release an \u201cISR flight plan\u201d this spring that articulates the Air Force\u2019s technology, systems architecture and manpower requirements from now until 2035.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/intel-geoint\/isr\/2018\/01\/04\/air-forces-to-unveil-plan-to-revamp-isr-enterprise-this-spring\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"214\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/635559612488234378-75472jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Air Force to unveil plan to revamp ISR enterprise this spring<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The flight plan will chart the course for the Air Force&#039;s ISR enterprise from now until 2035.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhat we\u2019re very hopeful is that the flight plan will recognize the need for very long endurance and very affordable ISR,\u201d said John Langford, Aurora\u2019s CEO and founder. \u201cThat\u2019s the niche we\u2019re trying to serve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re not a penetrating aircraft, we\u2019re not a denied access aircraft, but there are huge amounts of geography in many, many places where American citizens, American forces are deployed or engaged around the world. Places like the South China Sea, places like AFRICOM, that are chronically underserved by long dwell ISR. And for a limited amount of dollars and resources, it only makes sense.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It will take about two years to certify Orion. Should the Air Force then decide to acquire the system, it would be ready for low rate initial production, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Aurora\u2019s past Orion aircraft were experimental prototypes not hardened for battlefield conditions. To obtain a military type certificate, the company will have to prove every part of the plane \u2014 including its structures, engine and datalinks \u2014 conforms to the service\u2019s standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYou or I, from a hundred yards, probably won\u2019t be able to tell a Block 1 Orion from the current one. They are going to look very similar. Probably the biggest change you\u2019ll be able to see is that the tail will be smaller,\u201d Langford said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cUnderneath the skin, all of the engineering is being redone,\u201d he continued. \u201cThere will a lot more tests involved with this \u2014 structural tests, electronics tests, software development, a lot of work in the cyber security piece of this so that this can plug into the classified networks that it needs to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since its founding in 1989, Aurora has charted major successes creating experimental planes, especially in the realm of unmanned and autonomous aircraft. It\u2019s had a tougher time spinning off those technologies into a product line, Langford acknowledged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn the past, Aurora has been \u2014 we think of ourselves as very innovative, very focused on our customers,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we\u2019re still a 500 or 600 person company \u2026 and there are naturally limits to how far any small team can actually push one of these [technology development] programs, turning it into a program of record, a real product, deployed for multiple customers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That\u2019s where Boeing comes in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Boeing finalized its acquisition of Aurora in November, and executives see the relationship as one that provides major benefits for both companies: While Boeing will get to funnel Aurora\u2019s developmental technologies into its massive commercial and defense businesses, Aurora will be able to harness the power of Boeing\u2019s marketing and production arms, Langford said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For example, Boeing could position the Orion in the international market as a lower-cost alternative to its P-8 Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft or \u2014 for Poseidon customers like the U.S. Navy \u2014 a complimentary capability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe see it as being a perfect partner for the P-8,\u201d he said. The P-8 is \u201cfull of very sophisticated sensors, including weapons, right? So you could go out and sow a sonobuoy field, for example, and the Orion could follow that field for the next five days instead of the couple hours that the current systems follow a sonobuoy field.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Aurora has struggled to get the U.S. Air Force interested in ultrahigh-endurance drones that, in the case of its Orion aircraft, can stay aloft up to 100 hours. But the company&#8217;s CEO thinks the service just might be changing its mind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":51886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":7,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"4":{"categories":["your-air-force","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"your-air-force"},"9":{"categories":["uas","unmanned","isr","intel-geoint","home","daily-brief","newsletters"],"primary_category":"isr"}}},"categories":[7,160,36],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3384],"class_list":["post-23970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air","category-daily-news-roundup","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"3HYAZCZH7FFVBOFVVWDTY3DQBY","arc_canonical_url":"\/air\/2018\/01\/08\/aurora-ceo-optimistic-about-future-of-long-endurance-drones\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Is the Air Force changing its mind on long-endurance drones? - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Aurora has struggled to get the U.S. Air Force interested in ultrahigh-endurance drones that, in the case of its Orion aircraft, can stay aloft up to 100 hours. 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But the company&#039;s CEO thinks the service just might be changing its mind.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2018\/01\/08\/aurora-ceo-optimistic-about-future-of-long-endurance-drones\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Defense News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-01-08T18:23:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-07T22:00:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Valerie Insinna\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Valerie Insinna\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\n\t    \"@context\": \"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\n\t    \"@graph\": [\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"Article\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/air\\\/2018\\\/01\\\/08\\\/aurora-ceo-optimistic-about-future-of-long-endurance-drones\\\/#article\",\n\t            \"isPartOf\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/air\\\/2018\\\/01\\\/08\\\/aurora-ceo-optimistic-about-future-of-long-endurance-drones\\\/\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"author\": {\n\t                \"name\": \"migration\",\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/cc76c831bb37a926738c8391fca7a3b1\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"headline\": \"Is the Air Force changing its mind on long-endurance drones?\",\n\t            \"datePublished\": \"2018-01-08T18:23:26+00:00\",\n\t            \"dateModified\": \"2026-08-07T22:00:29+00:00\",\n\t            \"mainEntityOfPage\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/air\\\/2018\\\/01\\\/08\\\/aurora-ceo-optimistic-about-future-of-long-endurance-drones\\\/\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"wordCount\": 760,\n\t            \"commentCount\": 0,\n\t            \"publisher\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/#organization\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"image\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/air\\\/2018\\\/01\\\/08\\\/aurora-ceo-optimistic-about-future-of-long-endurance-drones\\\/#primaryimage\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"thumbnailUrl\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/Auroras-Orion-UAS.JPG.jpg\",\n\t            \"articleSection\": [\n\t                \"Air Warfare\",\n\t                \"Daily News Roundup\",\n\t                \"Newsletters\"\n\t            ],\n\t            \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\",\n\t            \"potentialAction\": [\n\t                {\n\t                    \"@type\": \"CommentAction\",\n\t                    \"name\": \"Comment\",\n\t                    \"target\": [\n\t                        \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/air\\\/2018\\\/01\\\/08\\\/aurora-ceo-optimistic-about-future-of-long-endurance-drones\\\/#respond\"\n\t                    ]\n\t                }\n\t            ]\n\t        },\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"WebPage\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/air\\\/2018\\\/01\\\/08\\\/aurora-ceo-optimistic-about-future-of-long-endurance-drones\\\/\",\n\t            \"url\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/air\\\/2018\\\/01\\\/08\\\/aurora-ceo-optimistic-about-future-of-long-endurance-drones\\\/\",\n\t            \"name\": \"Is the Air Force changing its mind on long-endurance drones? - Defense News\",\n\t            \"isPartOf\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/#website\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"primaryImageOfPage\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/air\\\/2018\\\/01\\\/08\\\/aurora-ceo-optimistic-about-future-of-long-endurance-drones\\\/#primaryimage\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"image\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/air\\\/2018\\\/01\\\/08\\\/aurora-ceo-optimistic-about-future-of-long-endurance-drones\\\/#primaryimage\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"thumbnailUrl\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/Auroras-Orion-UAS.JPG.jpg\",\n\t            \"datePublished\": \"2018-01-08T18:23:26+00:00\",\n\t            \"dateModified\": \"2026-08-07T22:00:29+00:00\",\n\t            \"description\": \"Aurora has struggled to get the U.S. Air Force interested in ultrahigh-endurance drones that, in the case of its Orion aircraft, can stay aloft up to 100 hours. 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