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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday February 02 2020, @12:27PM   Printer-friendly
from the baby-birds-leaving-the-nest dept.

DOD launches swarming drone in test of C-130 "drone mothership" concept:

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has been conducting research into a number of types of swarming drones that could be used on the battlefield. The latest of these is the "Gremlins" program—an effort to build relatively low-cost unmanned aircraft that can be launched from a "mothership" transport aircraft and then be recovered by the mothership after their mission is complete.

This past week, the Defense Department conducted the first airborne launch test for the Dynetics X-61A Gremlins Air Vehicle, a jet-powered drone that can be launched from the rotary weapons bays of the B-1 and B-52, from wing pylons, or from a C-130—and then recovered by a C-130 equipped with a docking cable and a crane-like recovery arm.

The first flight of the X-61A took place in November, but the test this week—at the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah—was the first air launch of the drone. While the 101-minute flight was successful, the parachute system intended to allow for a soft ground landing failed, and the drone was destroyed in the unexpected hard landing that followed.

[...] The first recovery test will come sometime this spring. By the end of the year, the program aims to launch and recover four Gremlins within 30 minutes.

Also at MIT Technology Review


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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday February 02 2020, @10:32PM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday February 02 2020, @10:32PM (#952898) Journal

    While I can't be 100% sure I think that's kind of the point. In a large-scale invasion, you will want a decoy force of reasonably large planes to fool enemy radar into believing that the invading force is coming from somewhere, while the real attacking force is coming from somewhere else.

    Or you can slap some firepower on them and make them the real attacking force.