SOCOM wants a drone-launched fire-and-forget missile
By Michael Peck
Friday, Oct 17, 2025
SOCOM wants a small, jam-proof, fire-and-forget missile that can be launched from medium-sized drones. Here, a Scan Eagle UAV sits at Al Asad, Iraq. (Spc. Derek Mustard/U.S. Army)
U.S. Special Operations Command wants a small, jam-proof, fire-and-forget missile that can be launched from medium-sized drones.
The goal of the Symbiotic UAS Delivery System, or SCBDS, project is to develop a missile small enough to “allow special operations soldiers to conduct multiple fire and forget kinetic strikes” from a Group 2 or 3 drone that has advanced target recognition capabilities, according to the Army Small Business Innovation Research solicitation. This means launch UAVs with a maximum takeoff weight between 21 and 1,320 pounds.
“The munition will have a range of [greater than] 4 kilometers, be self-propelled, and be capable of conducting kinetic anti-personnel and/or anti-material strikes without post-launch guidance input from the Group 2/3 platform it was launched from,” said the solicitation, which closed last month.
The missile would be small, with the system’s total weight not exceeding five pounds, including two pounds of “useful kinetic payload,” the SBIR said. It should also have a minimum speed of 100 kilometers per hour, and an accuracy of within five meters of the target, even in a GPS-denied environment.
https://www.militarytimes.com/unmanned/2025/10/17/socom-wants-a-drone-launched-fire-and-forget-missile/
