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AUSA 2025: Sikorsky’s Nomad VTOL Drone Blends Rotor-Blown Wing with ISR and Strike Payloads

 During AUSA 2025 in Washington D.C., Lockheed Martin’s Sikorsky unveiled the Nomad family of vertical-takeoff, runway-independent drones, formally announced by the company on October 6, 2025. The concept leverages a twin-proprotor “rotor-blown wing” configuration to combine helicopter-like access with fixed-wing reach, promising long endurance and small-footprint operations on land or at sea. The reveal follows a year of progressively more ambitious trials and arrives as U.S. forces push distributed operations concepts where logistics, ISR and strike need to launch from almost anywhere. By aligning autonomy, hybrid-electric propulsion and a scalable airframe architecture, the Nomad proposition speaks directly to Indo-Pacific distance, contested logistics and rapid maritime dispersion requirements. Company officials frame it as a force multiplier that complements crewed platforms such as the Black Hawk while expanding options for units at the tactical edge. Read Full Defense News At This Link.


Sikorsky’s Nomad is a scalable drone family, spanning Group 3 to Group 4/5 variants built on a shared design. Twin propellers enable tail-down vertical lift and transition to wing-borne cruise, with most models using hybrid-electric propulsion and larger ones relying on conventional drivetrains (Picture source: Army Recognition Group)




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