Insider Brief
- Reliable Robotics has secured a $17.4M contract with the U.S. Air Force to integrate and test its Reliable Autonomy System (RAS) on a Cessna 208B aircraft, advancing the deployment of uncrewed aviation technology in military operations.
- The FAA-certifiable system fully automates all phases of flight—taxi, takeoff, cruise, and landing—using redundancy and advanced navigation technology to enhance safety and reduce operational costs.
- This collaboration builds on previous Air Force contracts, including autonomy integration on the KC-135 Stratotanker, and aligns with the service’s Agile Combat Employment strategy to enable rapid, dispersed, and resilient logistics.
PRESS RELEASE –Reliable Robotics, the leader in autonomous aircraft systems, has announced it will provide automated aircraft to the United States Air Force. The contract includes the purchase, integration, and test of the Reliable Autonomy System (RAS) onboard a Cessna 208B aircraft.
The company’s FAA-certifiable technology enables continuous operations at a fractional cost compared to legacy systems. By adding autonomous capabilities to proven, type certified aircraft, operators realize greater safety, flexibility, and efficiency in the execution of their mission sets.
The Reliable Autonomy System is a complete solution for the integration of large uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) into both civil and military airspaces. The system fully automates aircraft through all phases of operation including taxi, takeoff, enroute and landing. Reliable’s system is aircraft agnostic and utilizes multiple layers of redundancy and advanced navigation technology to improve safety and achieve the levels of integrity and reliability necessary for uncrewed flight.
“Autonomous aircraft are a true force multiplier, enabling every service’s agility concepts—especially Agile Combat Employment (ACE), where success depends on rapid, unpredictable logistics across dispersed hubs,” said General Mike Minihan (Ret.), former Commander of Air Mobility Command. “Reliable’s automation shows how the Air Force is leveraging autonomy not just to reduce risk, but to expand the number and diversity of locations where sustainment can go—directly, securely, and at the tempo required to win.”
This contract is the latest collaboration between Reliable and the Air Force to advance autonomous aviation at the speed of need. The company has worked with the Air Force through a variety of contracts and exercises designed to research, collaborate, develop, and implement autonomy onto the Cessna 208B Caravan and KC-135 Stratotanker. The company also recently announced its work to support the development of the Autonomy Government Reference Architecture (A-GRA), the Air Force’s extensible multi-platform and multi-mission autonomy architecture, to ensure it benefits from Reliable’s recent advancements in commercially certifiable autonomy.
“Reliable is taking the first step to redefining military aviation mobility,” said Robert Rose, CEO and co-founder, Reliable Robotics. “This deployment is about bringing a dual-use autonomy system to improve safety and boost operational tempo at scale.”
This research was, in part, funded by the U.S. Government. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the U.S. Government.
