Army tests robotic coyotes to defend fighter jets
By Hope Hodge Seck
Jul 7, 2025, 11:56 AM
Three four-wheeled unmanned ground vehicles mounted with life-size plastic coyote figures stand sentry over the U.S. Navy's elite Blue Angels fighter jet demonstration team. The "Coyote Rovers" are prototypes designed to scare off wildlife from military airfields. (Engineer Research and Development Center/Army Corps of Engineers)
Sure, “robots versus birds” may sound like a low-budget sci-fi movie franchise. But for the Army Corps of Engineers’ Engineer Research and Development Center, it’s actually a savvy solution to a problem that has long threatened the military’s most sophisticated and powerful aviation platforms at their home stations.
ERDC is working on prototypes of unmanned ground vehicles, or UGVs, that can be deployed across airfields to scare off birds and other problematic wildlife that could do millions of dollars’ worth of damage, or even threaten aircrew lives by flying into the engine.
A photo released by the center demonstrates one vision for the technology: three four-wheeled UGVs mounted with life-size plastic coyote figures, standing sentry over the Navy’s elite Blue Angels fighter jet demonstration team.
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-army/2025/07/07/army-tests-robotic-coyotes-to-defend-fighter-jets/
