Sikorsky Nomad 100

History

The Sikorsky Nomad 100 is an autonomous vertical-takeoff-and-landing uncrewed aircraft developed in the United States. It uses a rotor-blown wing configuration intended to combine vertical flight with efficient wing-borne cruise.

The aircraft was created for missions that require operation without runways or conventional aviation infrastructure. Proposed roles include reconnaissance, logistics, communications relay, surveillance, and weapons delivery from land bases, ship decks, and unimproved landing zones.

Nomad 100 is part of Sikorsky's scalable Nomad family and participates in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Early VTOL Aircraft Demonstration program. EVADE builds on work associated with DARPA's AdvaNced airCraft Infrastructure-Less Launch And RecoverY program.

Development

Sikorsky developed the Nomad family around a twin-proprotor rotor-blown wing. The configuration is designed to take off and land vertically, hover, transition to forward flight, and cruise using aerodynamic lift from the wing. Sikorsky describes the family as scalable from Group 3 uncrewed aircraft to aircraft with a footprint comparable to a Black Hawk helicopter.

The smaller Nomad 50 served as an early demonstrator for the configuration. Sikorsky reported extended flight testing of that aircraft in March 2025 and publicly presented the Nomad family in October 2025. Nomad 50 had a wingspan of approximately 3.1 m (10.3 ft), while the Nomad 100 was announced as a larger Group 3 design with an approximately 5.5 m (18 ft) wingspan. The development sequence is described in a Nomad family overview.

Initial testing

In 2026, Sikorsky completed initial ground and flight testing of the Nomad 100 in cooperation with DARPA. This was the first confirmed flight milestone for the exact Nomad 100 variant. Contemporary reporting described the tests as part of DARPA's EVADE effort, an accelerated demonstration derived from the earlier ANCILLARY work.

EVADE evaluates autonomous VTOL aircraft weighing less than 150 kg (330 lb) that are intended to improve range, endurance, and payload capacity over existing aircraft in the same weight class. Nomad 100 is one of five different aircraft designs selected for the demonstration. The other participating airframe developers are AeroVironment, Griffon Aerospace, Karem Aircraft, and Method Aeronautics.

After the initial tests, Sikorsky planned an intensive flight-test campaign at a government facility. The campaign was intended to reproduce multirole missions from austere forward bases, ships, and unimproved landing areas. The testing milestone and planned campaign were reported by Military Aerospace, Inside Defense, and Defence21.

Design

Airframe and flight configuration

Nomad 100 is a tail-sitting rotor-blown-wing aircraft with two prop-rotors. It rests vertically for takeoff and landing, uses the prop-rotors for powered lift and hover, and transitions into a horizontal attitude for wing-borne cruise. This arrangement removes the need for a runway while retaining the aerodynamic efficiency of a fixed-wing aircraft during forward flight.

The configuration is intended for operations over land and at sea. Its runway independence allows deployment from confined sites, austere bases, ship decks, and landing zones without prepared aviation infrastructure. Sikorsky has stated that the design is intended for all-weather operation, although detailed environmental limits have not been published.

Autonomy and control

Nomad 100 uses Sikorsky's MATRIX autonomy technology. The system manages flight control and navigation throughout a mission, including takeoff, long-range transit, and landing. Its purpose is to reduce continuous operator input and allow the aircraft to work within crewed-uncrewed teams.

DARPA selected MATRIX as the common autonomy system for all five aircraft in the EVADE demonstration. A shared autonomy baseline allows each participant to concentrate on airframe design, propulsion, manufacturing, and payload integration instead of creating a separate flight-control architecture.

The EVADE aircraft also use Battle Management System payload software developed by the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division and interface with the Tactical Assault Kit. This common architecture is intended to distribute operational information directly to tactical users and reduce dependence on dedicated ground-control stations.

Sikorsky says the Nomad architecture can interface with command-and-control systems including the Army Universal UAS Controller and the U.S. Marine Corps MAGTF Agile Network Gateway Link. MATRIX has also been installed on Sikorsky's S-70UAS U-Hawk and hybrid electric demonstrator, but these are separate aircraft rather than Nomad 100 variants.

Propulsion

Sikorsky describes the broader Nomad family as predominantly using hybrid-electric propulsion, with conventional drivetrains planned for larger versions. The company also associates Nomad development with electric propulsion and advanced manufacturing. However, detailed information about the Nomad 100 powerplant, energy storage, prop-rotor dimensions, and installed power has not been released.

Mission equipment

The aircraft is designed around interchangeable mission payloads. DARPA has identified logistics resupply, communications relay, synthetic aperture radar, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and weapons delivery as representative roles for aircraft developed through EVADE. Open systems are intended to simplify the addition of new payloads without redesigning the common autonomy architecture.

Published concept imagery has shown a Nomad 100 configuration with an electro-optical and infrared sensor and four small external weapons. Details of the central fuselage and propulsion system were concealed in imagery of the flight-test aircraft. The displayed weapons configuration should therefore be regarded as a proposed mission fit rather than a confirmed operational load. Further background on the disclosed configuration appears in a Nomad 100 flight-test report.

Program status

As of July 2026, Nomad 100 had completed its initial ground and flight-test phase but remained a development and demonstration aircraft. No production order, operational unit, service-entry date, or confirmed military operator had been announced.

DARPA intends EVADE to advance aircraft development, certification, manufacturing readiness, and supply-chain maturity in parallel. The program seeks to shorten the transition between experimental aircraft and deployable systems while maintaining a common autonomy and mission-software architecture.

Sikorsky has presented Nomad 100 as a potential brigade-level reconnaissance aircraft and as a possible candidate for requirements associated with replacing the U.S. Army's RQ-7 Shadow. These are prospective roles, not evidence that the aircraft has been selected or entered service.

Variants

• Nomad 50: Smaller demonstrator with an approximately 3.1 m (10.3 ft) wingspan. It preceded Nomad 100 and was used to demonstrate the rotor-blown-wing concept.
• Nomad 100: Group 3 member of the family with an approximately 5.5 m (18 ft) wingspan. It entered initial ground and flight testing during 2026 under the DARPA EVADE program.
• Larger Nomad concepts: Proposed Group 4 and Group 5 aircraft derived from the scalable architecture. Published concepts include a Group 4 version with a proposed external payload of 227 kg (500 lb), but these concepts are not Nomad 100 specifications.

Specifications (Nomad 100)

General characteristics

• Type: Autonomous rotor-blown-wing VTOL uncrewed aircraft
• Configuration: Tail-sitting wing with two prop-rotors
• Wingspan: Approximately 5.5 m (18 ft)
• Aircraft class: Group 3 UAS
• EVADE demonstration weight limit: Less than 150 kg (330 lb)
• Operator accommodation: Uncrewed

Flight capabilities

• Takeoff and landing: Vertical
• Flight modes: Vertical takeoff, hover, transition, wing-borne cruise, and vertical landing
• Infrastructure requirement: Runway independent
• Flight control: Sikorsky MATRIX autonomous flight system

Mission systems

• Common EVADE payload software: Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division Battle Management System
• Tactical interface: Tactical Assault Kit
• Proposed missions: Reconnaissance, logistics resupply, communications relay, synthetic aperture radar, intelligence, surveillance, weapons delivery, and crewed-uncrewed teaming