Questions Surround Air Force’s New Glider-Based Drone
In early May, U.S. Air Forces Central released a series of photographs of a glider-like drone preparing for an early-morning mission at an “undisclosed location.
Photo captions identified the aircraft as the Unmanned Long-endurance Tactical Reconnaissance Aircraft, or ULTRA.
At least one ULTRA drone has been flying with 380th Air Expeditionary Wing as a low-cost, longer-endurance alternative to the MQ-9 Reapers, which the wing also operates. But the Air Force Research Laboratory — which developed ULTRA in a collaboration with Fairfax, Virginia-headquartered DZYNE Technologies — won’t acknowledge that aircraft is already operational.
“The ULTRA program continues to progress through prototype development and test activities,” AFRL spokesman Bryan Ripple said. “AFRL is not releasing further details on the ULTRA program at this time as that information is pre-decisional or not yet approved for public release.”
“As for the recent imagery of the ULTRA program released by U.S. Air Forces Central” on the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service website, “we cannot comment on the specific location of any aircraft platform operating within the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility due to operational security,” said Ann Stefanek, chief of media operations in the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force.