Saturday, February 1, 2020

US Defense Department Test Launches A Gremlin Drone From A Mothership For The First Time



Defense News: US Defense Department launches Gremlins drone from a mothership for the first time

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Defense Department is one step closer to having swarming drones that it can launch from military planes and recover in midair, having successfully conducted the first flight of the Gremlins aircraft in November.

The test, which occurred at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, proved that a C-130A could successfully launch an X-61A Gremlins Air Vehicle, said Tim Keeter, who manages the program for Dynetics. The company won the Gremlins contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in 2018.

“It gives us a lot of confidence going forward that this vehicle can fly where it’s supposed to fly, how it’s supposed to fly,” Keeter said during a Jan. 21 phone call with reporters. “Now the team can be principally focused on the other portion of our program plan … which is to successfully rendezvous with a C-130, dock with our docking system … and safely recover the vehicle.”

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More News On The US Defense Department Test Launching A Gremlin Drone From A Mothership For The First Time

Watch DARPA's Air-Launched And Air-Recovered "Gremlins" Drone Take Its First Flight -- Warzone/The Drive
DARPA’s Gremlins Program Accomplishes First Flight -- Air Force Magazine
Kratos' Gremlins Take to the Sky -- Motley Fool
Video: Pentagon’s ‘Mad Scientist Division’ Tests ‘Mothership’ for Gremlin Drone Swarm -- Sputnik
DOD launches swarming drone in test of C-130 “drone mothership” concept -- Ars Technica

4 comments:

Roger Smith said...


I wish these people were not so open about what we are doing and how we will use the devices we develop.
Perhaps I'm being naïve but I'm certain such admissions are, in part, a catalyst to this tedious and costly development of seldom if ever used weapons in which humanity has been engaged for so long.

Andrew Jackson said...

Yea Gremlins!!!

Anonymous said...

I was hoping for Pacer, but I guess Gremlin will have to do...

Anonymous said...

Birth of the hypothesized missle/drone bus. Picture a b52 with hundreds of drones or salvos of dozens of standoff missiles/gbu