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Swarms of "Gremlin" Drones Would Bedevil Enemy Radar

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  • 20-04-2016 9:15pm
    #1
    _Tombstone_
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,006 ✭✭✭


    A new type of supernatural creature plagued Britain's aircrews of World War II: the gremlin, an elusive imp that tampered with machinery and took the blame for any number of technical problems. Now the Gremlin is back, but we're not talking about an apparition (or an AMC).

    DARPA adopted the name Gremlin for its new project to launch volleys of reusable drones meant to sow chaos among enemy air defences. The agency just awarded contracts to four teams exploring different approaches to the challenge of launching and recovering the drones from a mothership. The teams include aviation giant Lockheed Martin and General Atomics, makers of the Predator and Reaper drones, as well as Composite Engineering, the company that builds aerial target drones including the 650-pound BQM-167A Skeeter.

    These Gremlins would be launched from a safe distance by a bomber, transport, or fighter aircraft. They would fly up to 500 miles to the target area and loiter there for up to three hours before returning to be picked up by a C-130 recovery aircraft, possibly using the 1950s spiralling "bucket drop" technique. DARPA expects each Gremlin to survive at least 20 missions.

    http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a20459/swarms-of-gremlin-drones-darpa/


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