US Navy shows cannon launched "swarming drones"

Swarming Drones, is it the future of Artillery? Imagine making them smaller (grenade sized) and firing them at enemy positions, so more of a close area weapon.

swarming drones

Not the best clip, will try and find sources.

I like the idea of smart weapons, so long as they are smart. I assume these drones will be too small and too many to be remote piloted, so how do they tell friend from foe?

Here is some more information

LOCUST

The Navy’s swarm boats were guided by lasers and radar, but run primarily by a Rubik’s Cube-sized processing unit called the Control Architecture for Robotic Agent Command and Sensing, or CARACaS. The LOCUST project will borrow from the pervious effort but the ultimate solution will be very different.

The ultimate solution- uh oh..."

Nice find starred also my 12ga is now being loaded with dragonsbreath!!!! a reply to: Forensick

Just found perhaps a more credible source into LOCUST and its aims and goals:

LOCUST

Ship based and no mention of a land based alternative but the Youtube video does show them attacking buildings on land and not ships which is odd, perhaps they dont want to show they dont have a sound solution for the event of a swarm of small boats on the fleet (not that I consider it a fact, just throwing it out there, I would imagine a phalanx can make light work of a swarms of Itranian suicide sailors).

“The recent demonstrations are an important step on the way to the 2016 ship-based demonstration of 30 rapidly launched autonomous, swarming UAVs,” said ONR program manager Lee Mastroianni. The LOCUST program includes a tube-based launcher that can send UAVs into the air in rapid succession. The breakthrough technology then utilizes information-sharing between the UAVs, enabling autonomous collaborative behavior in either defensive or offensive missions.

And from Youtube:

Ive considered covering my property in stainless steel netting and running power through it. Their lil future warfare drones need a Spanking

a reply to: Forensick


This is wicked.... It was only a matter of time. I like the idea of being able to launch a swarm and have boots on the ground command them down on targets with lasers.

Or firing a swarm of these drones and having them fly in and take out multiple targets in a co-ordinated strike...

Really cool tech.

originally posted by: Forensick
Just found perhaps a more credible source into LOCUST and its aims and goals:

LOCUST

Ship based and no mention of a land based alternative but the Youtube video does show them attacking buildings on land and not ships which is odd, perhaps they dont want to show they dont have a sound solution for the event of a swarm of small boats on the fleet (not that I consider it a fact, just throwing it out there, I would imagine a phalanx can make light work of a swarms of Itranian suicide sailors).

They don't have a sound solution? Ha ha ha! It's called an attack helicopter. Could sink all of them in a few minutes. The F-18's off the carrier would be overkill, but no doubt the flyboys would compete to see how many they could get in a minute like a videogame.

originally posted by: Hijinx
a reply to: Forensick


This is wicked.... It was only a matter of time. I like the idea of being able to launch a swarm and have boots on the ground command them down on targets with lasers.

Or firing a swarm of these drones and having them fly in and take out multiple targets in a co-ordinated strike...

Really cool tech.

Let me interject a worse case scenario where we accidentally plug in the over lord.

originally posted by: mbkennel

They don't have a sound solution? Ha ha ha! It's called an attack helicopter. Could sink all of them in a few minutes. The F-18's off the carrier would be overkill, but no doubt the flyboys would compete to see how many they could get in a minute like a videogame.

I didn't say they don't have a solution, merely pointing out this is a ship based platform but the concept video only shows land based attack so it's probably not for anti ship warfare.

I was musing if this was interesting and yes I understand that a large part of the Navy is dedicated to attacking the land whilst the remaining assets are there to protect those attackin land but these seem like shorter range drones, not suitable for over the horizon attack, perhaps they are purely a Marine asset?

Anyway, what Attack Helicopters do the Navy operate for fleet defence? The Marines have Cobras but I don't think they routinely travel in Carrier groups.

a reply to: Forensick