By Garrett Reim2021-03-08T23:25:00+00:00 The US Air Force (USAF) is looking for air-to-air combat technologies for its family of next-generation unmanned air vehicles (UAVs). Some of the service’s initial focus areas are air domain awareness technologies, including airborne moving target indication sensors and equipment for high-value airborne asset protection, it says in a request for information posted online on 8 March. The USAF says it wants technologies developed with a “heavy focus on digital engineering, open-missions systems, machine learning, artificial intelligence, on-board edge processing, and autonomy.” Source: General Atomics Aeronautical Systems General Atomics Defender concept The development effort is intended to build a pipeline of technologies for the Next-Generation Multi-Role Unmanned Aerial System Family of Systems, a project also called “MQ-Next” that is to replace the General Atomics Aeronautical Systems MQ-9 Reaper. That UAV is currently used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and strike missions against terrorists and insurgents, but is vulnerable to being shot down by the more capable Chinese and Russian militaries.