Legislators Want Military to Speed Up Electric Aircraft Integration
The U.S. Air Force began investigating electric aviation’s potential military applications in 2020, but now lawmakers want the effort to be ramped up.
U.S. Air Force airmen and civilian Contractors inspect and take photos of Lift Aircraft’s Hexa aircraft during Emerald Warrior 22.1 at Hurlburt Field, Florida, May 3, 2022. [Courtesy: U.S. Air Force]
Stars and Stripes is reporting a U.S. House subcommittee has proposed a bill aimed at speeding up integration of electric aircraft into military operations.
Since 2020, the U.S. Air Force has had a program called Agility Prime to look at electric aviation’s potential uses, but now legislators want the effort to be ramped up. As part of the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, the bill would “set up a working group made up of top-ranking defense officials” to kick-start Agility Prime, and it’s throwing some major brass at it.
The new committee, if approved, would be run by the Secretary of the Air Force and would include the Army and Navy secretaries and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Air Force Secretary would have to submit a first report by September 2025 and annually until 2027.
The Air Force already has contracts with several companies developing eVTOLs, including Beta Technologies, which delivered a test article of its Alia aircraft to Florida's Eglin Air Force Base, where it did its first test flight in November.
Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on AVweb.
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