Drones

 
DARPA's Gremlins Drones Were "Just Inches" From Successfully Being Recovered In Flight

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has announced that a number of X-61A Gremlins drones failed to link up in flight with a recovery system installed on a C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft in recent tests, but that they were close to success on multiple occasions. The agency and its partners are already working toward another round of capture attempts scheduled to take place next year.

The aerial recovery tests, part of the third phase of the Gremlins program, had begun at the U.S. Army's Dugway Proving Ground in Utah on Oct. 28, 2020, according to a press release from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The broad objective of the Gremlins effort, which began in 2015, has been to demonstrate the ability to launch and recovery a low-cost swarm of cruise missile-like drones in mid-air.

A team led by defense contractor Dynetics, now a fully-owned subsidiary of Leidos, and that also includes drone-maker Kratos, developed the X-61A unmanned aircraft and the recovery system, which employs a concept similar in broad strokes to a probe-and-drogue aerial refueling system. You can see how the system is supposed to work in the video below, which includes a clip of an earlier flight test where the drone was connected to the recovery system the entire time.