Text taken from m the Telegram channel of darpaandcia
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics.
[ColonelCassad] DARPA is seeking solutions to quadruple the payload capacity of drones. DARPA has launched another competition called the Lift Challenge. Winners will receive several cash prizes (the exact amount is not disclosed).
Participants are tasked with creating a vertical-takeoff drone capable of lifting four times its own weight. Currently, the multicopters that are so celebrated in the US have a payload-to-weight ratio of only 1:1 or even less.
DARPA is challenging inventors to achieve a "revolutionary breakthrough" and increase this ratio to 4:1. By comparison, the previous DARPA Launch Challenge, with a $12 million prize pool, ended in complete failure—no one won a penny. The vertical takeoff drone story is a painful one for the US military—the FARA (reconnaissance helicopter) and FTUAS (tactical drone) programs were canceled in 2024-2025, and procurement of the Gray Eagle was halted.
The US Army is simultaneously developing the Heavy VTOL program, seeking a drone capable of carrying 362-635 kg of cargo over 160 km. But these projects have yet to yield a breakthrough. Therefore, DARPA is returning to basics: instead of giant cargo drones, the agency is launching a competition to improve a basic characteristic—the payload-to-weight ratio of the aircraft itself.
Once the working concept of large drones has been effectively established, the conversation will naturally focus on improving their performance characteristics and increasing their effectiveness in terms of combat payload, energy efficiency, and the implementation of neural networks and artificial intelligence (in the future). We're currently struggling with large quadcopters – most large quadcopters and hexcopters used on the front lines are either captured/restored or purchased from China.
While we're ahead of the enemy in FPV drones with optics, as with many other types of drones, we're still lagging behind in these. Everything typically comes down to chips and controllers, as well as the uncompetitive cost of domestic counterparts, which, despite inferior performance, are more expensive than their Chinese counterparts.
Solving this problem could significantly impact the tactical situation on the battlefield. Friends who work with Babya Yaga-type drones, bombing, mining logistics, and delivering cargo to points, say that in terms of defending against such drones, the enemy faces the same problems as we do. And accordingly, increasing the number of large drones of this type will significantly increase these problems for the enemy.
Larger cargo drones, capable of carrying tens or hundreds of kilograms, could be used, in addition to military logistics, for cargo transportation in Siberia, the Arctic, and elsewhere. Of course, there are challenges (often the same as the Americans) with payload and communication quality. Such plans have already been announced, and frequencies are already being freed up for them.