US DARPA News

DARPA ALIAS Autonomous Black Hawk Delivered to U.S. Army

DARPA has delivered an experimental fly-by-wire H-60Mx Black Hawk helicopter equipped with the Sikorsky MATRIX autonomy suite to the U.S. Army for advanced operational testing. This delivery marks the completion of DARPA's Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) program, which achieved the world's first uninhabited Black Hawk flight in 2022. Under the technology transition agreement between DARPA and the Army's Project Manager for Utility Helicopters, the Army Combat Capabilities Development Command will use the helicopter as a flying laboratory to mature reduced-crew and fully autonomous flight capabilities.

DARPA Launches HARQ for Heterogeneous Quantum Computing

DARPA announced the launch of the Heterogeneous Architectures for Quantum (HARQ) program on April 14, 2026, an effort to overcome barriers in quantum computing by moving beyond single-technology qubit systems to achieve scalable, practical applications. Nineteen performer teams from 15 organizations will work on two parallel workstreams over 24 months: MOSAIC (software frameworks and circuit compilers) and QSB (hardware interconnects for qubit communication). The program aims to establish heterogeneous quantum computing architectures that combine different qubit types.

Bio-Attribution Challenge, $180k Prizes, Virtual Competition

DARPA's Biological Technologies Office has launched the Bio-Attribution Challenge, a virtual competition offering $180,000 in total monetary prizes across two rounds focused on detecting and attributing biological sequences at petabyte scale. Round 1 (Detection, 2 months) challenges participants to identify pathogens in complex environmental samples, while Round 2 (Attribution, 1.5 months) asks participants to determine the origin of engineered pathogens. The competition is purely computational — no actual biological materials are used — with all data curated by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. An awards ceremony will be held on June 30, 2026.