ANELLO Photonics and Delta Black Aerospace have announced a strategic collaboration focused on delivering resilient navigation capabilities for uncrewed aircraft operating without reliable GPS access. The partnership centers on integrating ANELLO’s optical inertial navigation technology into Delta Black Aerospace uncrewed aircraft systems designed for demanding and contested missions.
The joint effort addresses a growing operational challenge for modern UAS fleets. In environments affected by GPS jamming, spoofing, terrain masking, or electronic attack, conventional satellite-based navigation can no longer be assumed. By combining Delta Black’s mission-oriented airframes with ANELLO’s silicon photonics optical gyroscope technology, the companies aim to deliver assured position, navigation, and timing performance that remains stable even when GPS signals are degraded or unavailable.
Optical inertial navigation enables sustained autonomy without GPS
At the core of the collaboration is ANELLO’s silicon photonic optical gyroscope technology, engineered to deliver low-drift inertial navigation in a compact solid-state architecture. Unlike traditional mechanical or MEMS-based solutions, silicon photonics enables higher precision over extended durations while maintaining a size, weight, power, and cost profile suitable for uncrewed and autonomous platforms.
For Delta Black Aerospace, the integration is intended to enhance long-endurance and long-range mission profiles where navigation continuity is critical. These include intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance operations, contested logistics, and autonomous missions conducted deep inside GPS-denied airspace. Platform-level integration allows inertial navigation performance to be optimized directly within the aircraft control and autonomy stack rather than treated as a standalone sensor.
Assured PNT aligns with future defense and autonomy requirements
The collaboration reflects broader defense and aerospace priorities around assured navigation and resilient autonomy. As uncrewed aircraft increasingly operate as distributed systems across multiple domains, reliable navigation independent of external signals becomes a foundational capability. By pairing photonics-based inertial navigation with purpose-built UAS platforms, ANELLO and Delta Black Aerospace position their solution for future operational concepts where GPS availability cannot be guaranteed.
Both companies emphasize that navigation resilience directly influences mission effectiveness, autonomy confidence, and operational safety. The partnership is expected to focus on evaluation, optimization, and validation of inertial navigation performance across real-world flight conditions relevant to contested environments.
About ANELLO Photonics
ANELLO Photonics is a California-based navigation technology company specializing in silicon photonics optical gyroscopes and inertial navigation systems. The company pioneered the commercial use of silicon photonics for high-precision inertial sensing, targeting aerospace, defense, autonomous vehicles, and robotics markets. ANELLO’s solutions are designed to deliver navigation-grade performance in compact, solid-state form factors suitable for SWaP-C constrained platforms, with a core focus on GPS-denied and degraded environments.
About Delta Black Aerospace
Delta Black Aerospace is a US-based developer and manufacturer of mission-focused uncrewed aircraft systems. The company designs UAS platforms optimized for long-endurance and long-range operations, supporting defense and security mission sets that demand high autonomy and operational resilience. Delta Black Aerospace emphasizes platform-level integration of advanced avionics and navigation technologies to enable reliable performance in contested and complex operating conditions.
