The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA), Strategic Technology Office has awarded MORSE Corp a prime contract for its Albatross program.

The DARPA Albatross program aims to develop effective autonomous aircraft soaring capabilities leveraging weather forecast-informed mission planning and real-time onboard exploitation of dynamic environmental conditions to allow autonomous vehicles to fly farther and longer. MORSE will develop biomimetic technologies to actively harness energy from naturally occurring phenomena to reduce onboard aircraft power demand.

"This is a significant win for MORSE. Albatross is a program that combines a wide range of MORSE capabilities, including platform integration, autonomy, weather forecasting, mission planning, artificial intelligence, and flight testing," said MORSE Chief Technology Officer, Matt Dileo. "We are advancing the state-of-the–art, enhancing the efficiency and performance of planning and autonomy to provide a new extended-range aircraft capability to the US Department of Defense."

For over 10 years, MORSE has developed novel, multi-disciplinary, unconventional solutions to provide the US warfighter an asymmetric advantage. Albatross aims to transition fundamental R&D to operational capabilities, redefining the boundaries of what is possible and enabling a new paradigm of systems warfare.