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US Marine Corps awards Sikorsky–Robinson Unmanned $15.5M for MARV-EL Increment 2 autonomous R66 cargo helicopter flight demonstr

The U.S. Marine Corps selected Sikorsky (Lockheed Martin) and Robinson Helicopter’s Robinson Unmanned for the second increment of the Medium Aerial Resupply Vehicle–Expeditionary Logistics (MARV-EL) program, awarding $15.5 million to advance an autonomous aerial logistics platform based on the R66 TurbineTruck into flight testing.

Discovered 2026-04-27T13:05:14.237181-07:00 | 2026-04-27T13:05:14.237181-07:00

Briefing

What Hype is tracking

  • The MARV-EL Increment 2 award ($15.5 million) moves autonomous rotary-wing logistics beyond concepting into an integrated flight-demonstration phase for contested-environment resupply.
  • It deepens the broader U.S. services shift toward optionally piloted/uncrewed rotorcraft autonomy, building on earlier autonomy test work such as the H-60Mx optionally piloted Black Hawk under ALIAS (source:a9ee36fc-50c9-4d9a-a7ab-5c40278647ec).
  • The contract also extends the emerging uncrewed R66 value proposition highlighted in the launch of Robinson Unmanned and the autonomy-enabled R66 TurbineTruck offering (source:fdd95990-b6fa-4d2f-92ed-ae216411f850), aligning with parallel contested-logistics autonomy efforts including GPS-resilient maritime logistics drones for Marines (source:c4ab5c12-4115-4933-910f-649767121d23).

Reported By

UK Defence Journal Aviation Today militaryleak.com propilotmag.com Aero-News Aviacionline
Sources Tracked
43
First Seen
2026-04-27T13:05:14.237181-07:00
Latest Update
2026-05-04T09:57:49.780361-07:00
Coverage
Defense

Sources

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