Watch the Navy's LOCUST Launcher Fire Off a Swarm of Autonomous Drones
The tube-launched drones expand in mid-air to form a ferocious flock.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a21008/navy-locust-launcher-test-2016/By Eric Limer
May 24, 2016
Last year, the Navy announced the Low-Cost UAV Swarming Technology (LOCUST) program, a plane to build a launcher that could first dozens of drones out of a tube to create a vicious swarm designed to "autonomously overwhelm an adversary."
A recent video posted to YouTube by U.S. Navy Research shows the latest demo from last month, in which the launchers just effortlessly throw a swarm of nine into the air with a serious of thwunks. It's both understated and impressive.
While the U.S. military has been utilizing large, single drones for years now, its future sights seem to be set on the potential for swarms of small, inexpensive, and expendable drones. The LOCUST system here is clearly meant for deployment from the ground or a ship, but both the Air Force and the Navy have been investigating the idea of air-launched drones and, by extension, the future motherships that might carry these little fliers as one of their primary weapons.
How these swarms actually fight, and how they will be armed, is still unknown, but it seems every more likely that little fliers like these are the future of warfare.
