Ascent AeroSystems Spirit Platform Added to DIU Blue UAS Cleared List

by DRONELIFE Staff Writer Ian M. Crosby

The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) has announced the addition of Ascent AeroSystems’ Spirit platform to the Blue UAS Cleared List of approved small unmanned aerial systems (UAS).

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This new approval grants any U.S. government customer the ability to purchase and operate a Spirit without the need of any further technical review or approval.

“We’ve been shipping Spirits since 2020, and our customers worldwide have come to appreciate the rugged versatility it delivers,” said Ascent AeroSystems VP of Business Development Paul Fermo. “We’re pleased that government and municipal customers will now be able to get the systems they need with a few mouse clicks.”

The Blue UAS program, formed to offer an all-encompassing vetting process for selected unmanned aerial systems, removes duplicate approval processes across various branches of the government and defense agencies. By improving the efficiency of the approval process, operators and manufactures are able to put systems out into the field more quickly.

“Government agencies can’t pick and choose when and where they fly,” said Ascent AeroSystems CEO Peter Fuchs. “The Spirit’s coaxial configuration delivers the compact, high performance, all-weather capability needed for those mission-critical applications. Its modular design allows operators to not only configure it exactly as it’s needed for the mission at hand, but easily adapt new sensors as they become available.”

Read more about Ascent AeroSystems and the Blue UAS list:

Ian attended Dominican University of California, where he received a BA in English in 2019. With a lifelong passion for writing and storytelling and a keen interest in technology, he is now contributing to DroneLife as a staff writer.