FORT WORTH (KRLD) - A company based in Fort Worth has won a contract from the U.S. Army to build drones and a larger unmanned airship to use on the battlefield. Galaxy Unmanned Systems was selected for a Small Business Innovation Research contract.
"They put out a topic that was right in our wheelhouse," says co-founder Jason White.
White says the company will design a blimp that can fly unmanned and carry drones to run surveillance and provide information to troops.
"The challenge they're having with unmanned systems is they're either really big and really expensive, or they're too small and they don't have long enough flight durations," White says. "Our application fits right in the middle. That has tremendous impact in Afghanistan, providing force protection for forward operating bases. We were able to, essentially, stop all 'kinetic activity,' where you have a lot of IEDs or sniper activity around bases."
White and his brother, Tony, founded the company together. They say the blimp is big enough to provide messages and instructions to troops.
"The smallest ship we have is 35 feet long, which is as big as a Cessna, so we can always be seen," Tony White says. "We're highly visible."
He says the blimp and drones could also deliver critical medical supplies to a unit dealing with casualties.
Galaxy Unmanned Systems has also been chosen to join the "Mobility Innovation Zone" at Alliance Texas. The brothers say that will let them work with companies like BNSF and Amazon on civilian applications for their system.
"Alliance Airport is a huge hub for package delivery. There's a lot of infrastructure there," says Jason White. "It really gives us an opportunity to develop practical use cases. We're going to find all kinds of applications we had no reason to think of. It's that intangible thing that helps launch a company into areas that have the greatest good and benefit for both industry and the community. Innovation comes from the unknown."