C-130 Successfully Snatches Gremlins Drone In Midair
Recent tests demonstrated that a mothership aircraft could launch and recover an X-61A Gremlins drone in flight.
www.thedrive.com
Recent tests demonstrated that a mothership aircraft could launch and recover an X-61A Gremlins drone in flight.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency says a specially equipped C-130 Hercules cargo plane successfully recovered an X-61A Gremlins drone in mid-air last month. That round of testing also saw two X-61As flying together and showed that one of the drones could be refurbished and launched on a second mission within 24 hours of its first one. These are all key capabilities that the Gremlins program has been working to demonstrate, as you can read more about in The War Zone's past reporting here.
It is not entirely clear when or where exactly this rounding of testing took place, according to a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) press release issued today. DARPA did say that two X-61As, also known a Gremlin Air Vehicles (GAV) were used in the tests and that they "successfully validated all autonomous formation flying positions and safety features before" one was recovered in flight. The GAVs are also capable of safely descending down to the ground after a flight using an internal parachute recovery system.
