AFCEA honored MITRE and the Office of Naval Research team for the Hopper drone with its 2024 Entrepreneurial R&D Innovation Award. Offering big potential for both defense and civilian maritime applications, the Hopper drone can “hop” across the ocean for weeks at a time, recharging via solar power all on its own while carrying a range of lower-power passive sensors.
Hopper can monitor ocean environments for illegal activities, conduct meteorological sensing and identify weather warnings, track marine life, and explore new ways for effective carbon capture. Hopper can potentially save lives by using drones instead of people to assess dangerous situations at sea. Additionally, when used in search and rescue missions, Hopper can identify people who may need saving and communicate their location back to appropriate authorities.
Read more about Hoppers’s capabilities.