Edwards launches “Game of Drones” to help deliver Drone Dominance for the Warfighter

Members of the Experimental Test Force and private industry conduct a performance-based sUAS experiment during the inaugural "Game of Drones" event held at Edwards AFB, CA Dec. 8-12. The week-long effort brought together six industry partners and engineers from the Air Force Research Laboratory to conduct live experimentation of emerging small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) and associated hardware. As the battlefield continues to diversify, the Department of War has called upon both service and industry to rapidly accelerate testing, acquisition, and production of unmanned systems for the warfighter, referred to as Drone Dominance. “Game of Drones” offers a speed-of-now playbook to meet this intent, going from idea to execution in less than four months. In "Game of Drones", industry partners from emerging to established can rapidly design, 3D-print, and test sUAS systems through agile experimentations across multiple domains such as C2 interoperability, counter-sUAS, rapid field printing, and autonomous swarming. The combination of collaboration and real-time feedback will help users from across the joint services identify key technologies and designs to expand the Department of War’s Blue List, a program that allows for rapid selection of approved unmanned aerial systems. (Photo by Christian Raterman)