Miles Jamison 
- Tycho.AI has advanced its Halley drone to Technology Readiness Level 6 after completing the OUSW R&E-backed testing
- Halley completed 39 evaluated flights during operational exercises in Indiana
- The VTOL drone reached speeds of up to 165 mph and operated at altitudes of up to 10,000 feet
Tycho.AI‘s Halley Group 1 vertical take-off and landing uncrewed aerial system has achieved Technology Readiness Level 6.
The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company said Tuesday it validated the VTOL UAS during the Office of the Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering’s Technology Readiness Experimentation 26-2 event, held in early May at Camp Atterbury, Indiana.
What Did Tycho.AI Demonstrate During Testing?
The demonstrations evaluated Halley’s flight performance, counter-UAS functions and one-way attack capabilities in operationally representative conditions. Halley completed 39 evaluated flights in first-person view, reaching speeds of up to 165 mph, altitudes of up to 10,000 feet and distances of up to 35 kilometers. Tycho.AI also conducted an inert ground strike and intercepted a Shahed drone replica during aerial testing.
Tycho.AI founder Sertac Karaman said Halley’s performance at T-REX demonstrated the company’s progress in developing small, fast and agile tactical drones for battlefield operations and countering modern adversarial threats.
What Technology Features Were Evaluated?
The company said Halley passed a cyber evaluation assessing its operational resilience and security. The drone also demonstrated automatic target recognition, video stream tokenization and onboard artificial intelligence capabilities that compress and transmit navigation-quality video over low-bandwidth communications links in degraded environments. The encrypted video stream would remain unreadable if intercepted.
What Capabilities Does the Halley Drone Offer?
Launched May 19, the Halley tactical drone is a modular tailsitter platform built for GPS-denied and communications-degraded environments. Tycho.AI said the aircraft is capable of speeds exceeding 200 mph; supports counter-UAS and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions; and uses its Voyager autonomy stack to navigate without relying on satellite systems.
