We
’ve already shown Boeing’s concept in DARPA’s Vulture 
high-altitude, extremely long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle program. Now its two competitors, Aurora Flight Sciences and Lockheed Martin, have released artist renderings of their own designs. Aurora calls its concept Odysseus. Lockheed Martin’s aircraft is equally intriguing. All three companies won Phase 1 contracts earlier this month to commence with the design and development of their respective aircraft. DARPA wants an unmanned system that is “able to fly on station and perform its mission for five years without interruption.”
While U.S. defense officials have spent much of the past decade warning that China is the nation’s pacing threat and its People’s Liberation Army represents an urgent threat in the Indo-Pacific, several defense researchers are skeptical that the PLA has the human capital, the structural ability, or the political appetite…