The United States’ Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA’s) aspirational “LongShot” program is believed to be advancing rapidly towards its first flight.
“What was once only conceptual is now making steady progress toward reality. DARPA’s LongShot with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems has successfully completed a series of technical milestones, moving its air-launched uninhabited vehicle – recently designated the X-68A – closer to flight testing,” the agency said in a press statement on February 17.
The development of this cutting-edge capability has advanced significantly, as evidenced by recent milestones achieved by partners, including successful trials of the vehicle’s weapons-release and parachute recovery systems and full-scale wind-tunnel testing.
LongShot will be launched first by an F-15 aircraft, often referred to as a “bomb truck” for its ability to carry massive payloads. However, whether DARPA has plans to integrate the air-to-air missile-equipped drone with the F-15EX fighter jet, the latest variant of the aircraft, remains unclear at this point.
The premise of the LongShot program is to explore how an uncrewed aircraft equipped with air-to-air missiles would increase the launch platform’s range and enhance its survivability. DARPA believes that both the Air Force and Navy could benefit from the program.
The drone is designed to be carried by warplanes, enabling the aircraft to impact targets well beyond the range of the missiles they carry.
While General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., or GA-ASI, has been the official industry lead responsible for designing, building and demonstrating the LongShot concept, DARPA “a multitude of US government stakeholders” including The United States Air Force’s (USAF’s) Arnold Engineering Development Complex, USAF’s Life Cycle Management Center, USAF’s F-15 Program Office, USAF’s 96th Test Wing, Air Force Research Laboratory, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) etc, have been involved.
The first flight test for the X-68A was originally set to begin in December of 2023, but it never happened. The first flight is now scheduled as early as the end of 2026.
“The team pivoted from a multi-stage glider flight plan to a more direct approach focused on a single, fully powered LongShot vehicle,” the spokesperson said. “They also changed course on the launch platform to F-15 integration.”
What Do We Know About The LongShot Program?
“The LongShot program is designed to fundamentally change air combat operations. The program’s premise is an uninhabited aircraft that can be launched from a larger aircraft, fly ahead of follow-on forces, and engage enemy targets with its own air-to-air missiles. This approach augments traditional fighter aircraft, enabling them to remain farther from the front lines, drastically increasing pilot safety while extending the overall force package reach and mission effectiveness,” according to DARPA.
The core concept behind the LongShot program involves an uninhabited UAV that acts as a forward-deployed “missile truck,” flying ahead of crewed platforms to confront adversaries while keeping human pilots at a safer standoff range.
This makes sense now more than ever, as airspaces become increasingly saturated and drones have become central to aerial combat everywhere.
In Ukraine, for instance, several expensive manned jets, such as the Su-34 Fullback fighter bomber, have been downed using SAMs, whereas multiple helicopters have been destroyed using ground-based portable air defences as well as deployment of one-way attack drones.
The LongShot program aims to challenge conventional air warfare paradigms, which require manned fighters to close in to unleash missiles.
By allowing the UAV to manage more dangerous aspects of engagements, LongShot may be able to integrate with larger “kill webs” to target targets beyond sensor range.
It will help keep pilots at a safer distance, reducing exposure to enemy fighters, surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), and anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) systems, such as those of China in the Indo-Pacific.
At least theoretically, it could be surmised that an F-15 could launch LongShots from beyond visual range, then manoeuvre evasively or retreat while the UAV closes the gap for more effective missile shots.
The UAV uses an efficient subsonic cruise for longer transit, then launches missiles closer to the target. This would essentially give missiles higher kinetic energy in the terminal phase, a shorter enemy reaction time, and a higher probability of kill compared to launching directly from the manned platform at maximum range.
Furthermore, LongShot would enable attacks from unexpected angles or multiple directions simultaneously, complicating enemy evasion and defensive manoeuvres. The low unit cost of the drone and its attritable design would allow mass launches, potentially dozens per sortie from fighters, bombers, or palletized systems like Rapid Dragon on cargo aircraft.
This would create overwhelming “missile blooms” that saturate enemy sensors, defences, and decision-making, enabling rapid temporary counter-air screens or localized air superiority, which is crucial in aerial combat with a near-peer adversary.
More importantly, though, it is designed to be host-platform agnostic, compatible with fighters, bombers, and even transport aircraft that use palletized munitions systems for mass deployment. This means that the LongShot program could turn non-fighter assets, such as B-52 bombers or C-17 transports, into active air-to-air contributors, providing defensive cover or offensive reach without dedicated fighters.
In the scenario where it’s launched from a bomber, LongShot’s deployment would be triggered by detecting hostile fighters through allied battle networks rather than solely relying on the bomber’s onboard sensors.
Besides helping to reduce risks to manned aircraft by allowing them to operate from standoff positions, it could be deployed to saturate the battlespace through mass launches, providing localized defence or overwhelming enemy air defences in a combat situation.
In 2020, General Atomics, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman were awarded initial contracts to develop rival drone ideas. However, GA-ASI was later selected as the main contractor for further development of the system.
GA-ASI also unveiled concept art that presents a striking departure from the design it showcased in 2021. The updated rendering depicts an uncrewed aircraft featuring significant changes, including an elongated fuselage, petite canards at the front, reverse-swept main wings toward the rear, and an inverted V-shaped twin-tail setup.
In the realm of military technology, the pursuit of innovative drone design has taken centre stage among Pentagon leaders, especially in the wake of the Ukraine War, which has proved that drones are the present and the future of all combat.
As seen in the renderings published to date, the LongShot’s overall shape is similar to that of a cruise missile, featuring a chined nose and an elongated fuselage. It features tiny canards at the front and reverse-swept main wings in the back of the fuselage, both of which burst out into their deployed positions upon touchdown. Additionally, it has reverse-swept main wings, small deployable canards that unfold after launch, an inverted V-shaped twin-tail, and a vertical strake near the top-mounted dorsal engine air intake.
It is said to be powered by a single Williams WJ38-15 turbojet engine, enabling high subsonic speeds, estimated up to Mach 0.95.
LongShot can launch at least one AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) from an internal bay that runs along the bottom of the fuselage, according to previously published illustrations.
The effectiveness of using an expendable drone like LongShot to deliver missiles closer to possible engagement locations and provide loitering capability is hard to say. Moreover, it is unknown how much it might cost, especially when compared to deploying longer-range missiles or more sophisticated, reusable drones.
However, the Air Force (as well as the Navy) could view LongShot as essential for fulfilling specific operational requirements that no other alternative can achieve.
LongShot aims to shift air combat from “manned platforms close the distance” to “launch forward assets to do the dangerous work,” providing decisive advantages in peer conflicts by combining range, mass, and reduced human risk.
Whether it will be able to achieve that remains to be seen.
“LongShot burns down significant technical risk and presents a viable path for the military services to increase air combat reach and effectiveness from uninhabited, air-launched platforms,” said Col. John Casey, DARPA LongShot program manager, as noted by the press release. “With the help of our partners, we’ve completed critical milestones necessary for the integrated flight test campaign, which will validate vehicle performance and lay the foundation for efficient follow-on development.”
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