Super Quiet Special Operations Drones Being Modified To Launch Smaller Drones
Air-launched drones would be a major force multiplier and open the door to all new operational possibilities for the Long Endurance Aircraft.
Joseph Trevithick
Jul 11, 2025 1:53 PM EDT
U.S. special operations Long Endurance Aircraft (LEA) surveillance drones, which are based on a popular civilian powered glider design, are set to gain the ability to launch smaller uncrewed aerial systems.
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U.S. special operations Long Endurance Aircraft (LEA) surveillance drones, which are based on a popular civilian powered glider design, are set to gain the ability to launch smaller uncrewed aerial systems. An air-launched drone capability is a huge force multiplier for the ultra-quiet LEAs, with their innocuous outward appearance, that opens up the possibility of employing them in new ways, including using them to conduct kinetic strikes.
U.S. Special Operations Command’s (SOCOM) portion of the Pentagon’s recently released budget request for the 2026 Fiscal Year includes an update on plans for the LEA fleet. SOCOM is not asking for any additional money for the LEA program in the upcoming fiscal cycle and is also axing work on a successor LEA UAS Next Generation drone.
A Long Endurance Aircraft (LEA) drone. TSC
The plan now, instead, is to “realign previously requested FY 2025 funding from LEA UAS Next Generation aircraft development to Long Endurance Aircraft (LEA) UAS Payload Prototypes and Integration to procure and integrate Air Launched Effects (ALE) payloads and a communication system upgrade to the existing LEA platform,” according to the SOCOM budget documents.
SOCOM’s budget documents do not elaborate on what kinds of ALEs the LEAs will be able to launch. The U.S. military uses ALE as a catch-all for air-launched uncrewed aerial systems, which could be configured for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions, to conduct electronic warfare tasks, act as decoys, or even be employed as loitering munitions. The basic term “launched effects” now encompasses similar categories of drones that can also be launched from ground and maritime platforms.
https://www.twz.com/air/super-quiet-special-operations-drones-being-modified-to-launch-smaller-drones
