The United States Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (AFB), Ohio, has awarded a nearly $100 million contract to General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) to develop a hybrid-electric ducted fan-powered unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The next-generation drone has been dubbed GHOST, but it is unclear if that is an acronym or a code name.
Specific details haven’t been provided, but GA-ASI has established itself in the UAV space, and there is already speculation that the company has been tasked with developing a drone that could utilize both a heavy-fuel engine and electric generators.
This could give the aircraft greater range, with the heavy-fuel engine delivering near a target when the much quieter electrical engines switch over to help avoid detection when entering the “contested environments.”
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