Marine Corps RFI Requires Low-Value FPV Drones: Beneath $4,000 Per Airframe
The U.S. Marine Corps has put trade on discover: it needs first individual view (FPV) succesful small UAS in enormous numbers, at low value, and constructed to be modified and repaired on the edge.
A brand new Sources Sought Discover from NAVAIR’s PMA-263 will not be a proper solicitation, however it clearly alerts the place Marine Corps small UAS necessities are headed and what FPV producers should ship to compete.
Market analysis with a transparent message: low-cost FPV at scale
The discover is a market analysis software, not a request for proposal. The objective is to grasp the business industrial base for FPV-capable small UAS that may be produced within the 1000’s.
Any candidate system should both be absolutely compliant with:
or present a reputable path to compliance. That language ties the trouble on to ongoing nationwide safety considerations about overseas made drones and elements.
The Marine Corps calls out one central requirement: low value. The unit value for every air automobile have to be lower than 4,000 {dollars}, with distributors required to interrupt out complete system value. That complete contains the plane, floor management, communication hyperlinks, FPV goggles, batteries, chargers, and some other required elements.
Value is described because the “main weighted measure” within the authorities’s analysis. Efficiency and options matter, however solely after the value level is met.
Manufacturing timelines: 1000’s of drones in a 12 months
The Marines should not simply looking for prototypes. They’re asking distributors to show they’ll construct at scale, on a decent schedule.
Trade is requested to show the power to:
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Ship an preliminary amount of techniques by 1 January 2026
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Ramp to 5,000 air autos inside 6 months
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Attain 10,000 models inside 12 months
Distributors should additionally state what number of full techniques they’ll ship instantly from present stock. This can be a robust sign that the service needs a mature, ready-to-produce industrial base, not paper designs.
Firms should additionally describe their provide chain plans for giant authorities orders, and supply an in depth invoice of supplies for each part within the system, together with half numbers, producers, and unit prices.
Constructed to be modified, repaired and armed by Marines
A key theme within the discover is discipline independence. The Marine Corps needs techniques that Marines can modify, restore, and even convert from non-kinetic to kinetic roles with out vendor assist.
The federal government specifies:
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Marines should have the ability to add third get together payloads, together with armaments and munitions, “inside cause”
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Marines should have the ability to restore the system on their very own
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Non-kinetic UAS have to be convertible to kinetic UAS within the discipline
The discover mentions easy deadly payloads equivalent to 30 mm mortars and grenades, and likewise calls out non-lethal missions and the potential to make use of these plane as targets throughout C-UAS coaching.
This factors on to the rising function of FPV drones as low-cost, attritable weapons and coaching instruments, quite than delicate ISR property.
FPV plus autonomy, AI and open structure
Whereas the fee and quantity alerts are blunt, the technical want checklist can be bold.
The Marines ask about:
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Max weight, payload, velocity, altitude, vary, and endurance for five inch and 10 inch techniques
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Modular, multi-mission payload functionality
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Modular Open Methods Structure requirements
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Autonomy options equivalent to waypoint navigation, impediment avoidance, and swarm management
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AI and machine studying capabilities, from object recognition to focus on monitoring
The RFI additionally probes for interoperability with frequent instruments and frameworks, together with ATAK, ROS, OpenMAVLink, and customary AI mannequin codecs equivalent to ONNX and TensorFlow Lite. The service needs techniques that may plug into AI-enabled command and management networks and share actual time information.
Transmission hyperlinks could also be analog, digital, GSM, or fiber, reflecting the Marine Corps’ curiosity in versatile communications quite than a single mandated resolution.
A brand new chapter for FPV and the U.S. drone industrial base
This discover is labeled “for data solely,” however the intent is evident. The Marine Corps is making ready for potential fielding of 1000’s of low-cost, FPV-capable drones which might be modular, repairable, and NDAA compliant.
For FPV producers, that creates a brand new set of targets: sub-4,000 greenback airframes, speedy scaling to five-figure manufacturing volumes, and designs that invite Marine-led modification as a substitute of locking customers into proprietary ecosystems.
For the broader U.S. drone ecosystem, it marks one other step within the shift towards mass-produced, expendable techniques that mix hobby-style agility with defense-grade necessities and safe provide chains.
Learn extra:
Miriam McNabb is the Editor-in-Chief of DRONELIFE and CEO of JobForDrones, knowledgeable drone providers market, and a fascinated observer of the rising drone trade and the regulatory setting for drones. Miriam has penned over 3,000 articles centered on the business drone house and is a global speaker and acknowledged determine within the trade. Miriam has a level from the College of Chicago and over 20 years of expertise in excessive tech gross sales and advertising and marketing for brand spanking new applied sciences.
For drone trade consulting or writing, E-mail Miriam.
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