The Age Of Swarming Air-Launched Munitions

A US Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle carrying 20 GBU-39/B Small Diameter Bombs. With technology being developed now through Golden Horde, an aircraft with this loadout might eventually be able to launch these weapons as a single autonomous swarm. USAF 

Warzone/The Drive: The Age Of Swarming Air-Launched Munitions Has Officially Begun With Air Force Test 

The Air Force has begun test-launching networked glide bombs that work together to sort, target, and destroy targets cooperatively on their own. 

The Air Force has dropped Small Diameter Bombs modified to incorporate swarming technology as part of the service's Golden Horde program for the first time. The ultimate aim of this effort is to develop artificial intelligence-driven systems that could allow the networking together of various types of precision munitions into an autonomous swarm. 

The test, which took place on Dec. 15, 2020, but which was only publicly announced today, was carried out by a team from the U.S. Air Force Test Center at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida using an F-16 Viper fighter jet from that base's 96th Test Wing. The aircraft dropped two specially-configured Collaborative Small Diameter Bombs (CSDB) during the experiment. 

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WNU Editor: Being bombed by one big bomb or being bombed by a swarm of air-launched munitions. It is the same to me. But I can understand why the US Air Force wants this. It would be harder for the enemy to intercept a swarm of munitions rather than one large target.