DARPA Want To Turn C-130 Aircraft Into Air Platforms That Will Launch And Recover Drones

Scout Warrior: DARPA Gremlins to Launch & Recover Drones from Air Force C-130s

The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency plans to demonstrate an ability to launch and recover small drones from an Air Force C-130 aircraft as part of its continued development of the Gremlins program - a technical effort designed to deploy groups of small drones carrying 60-pound sensor payloads up to ranges of 300 nautical miles.

The program is expected to culminate in an air launch and recovery demonstration in 2019.

The drones are intended to perform a range of missions, such as testing enemy air defenses and conducting ISR missions for an hour on station before returning to an Air Force C-130, developers said. A key concept of the program is extending the mission range of aircraft, while allowing manned crews to operate at safer distances.

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WNU Editor: I guess we are entering the age of the drone swarm.

This Is Why The C-130 Is An Awesome Flying Machine

Eric Tegler, Popular Mechanics: Why the C-130 Is Such a Badass Plane

It's the go-anywhere, do-anything flyer that's much more than a jack of all trades.

Amidst the chaotic withdrawal of American forces from Saigon in April 1975, a young man in the South Vietnamese Air Force (VNAF), Tinh Nguyen, peered out from a bunker at Tan Son Nhut Air Base. The airfield had been under North Vietnamese mortar fire all night and more than 100 aircraft had been destroyed. But there was still one flyable C-130A (the initial production version). During a lull in the firing, it taxied toward the runway navigating around the smoking debris.

This massive plane's rear ramp was still open with a crowd of people huddling on it, and Nguyen knew he had to get to it.

"It was either leave right then or stay and get killed."

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WNU Editor: Like the B-52, it has been around forever.

C-130J in Action