Gremlins and Hornets: Gun Industry Leaning into Drone-on-Drone Combat
Last week, Federal, Mossberg, and SIG quietly announced new initiatives to arm unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for future air-to-air combat.
SwarmShot
Federal Ammunition, Mossberg, and the Palladyne AI Corp have teamed up to develop “SwarmShot,” which is being described as a modular, autonomous airborne counter-UAS system. In other words, an armed drone that is capable of shooting down other drones.
Designed to counter hostile drone swarms affordably and effectively, the system will integrate Federal’s unnamed specialized counter-UAS shotshell ammunition, a lightweight Mossberg airborne weapon module (we guess based on the 990 Aftershock autoloader), and Palladyne’s IntelliSwarm autonomy software.
One of these, san grips, fore arm, and anything else not needed, fired via solenoid:
Gremlin-X has a 10-pound payload and the 990 Aftershock, loaded 5+1, only goes a bit over 7, with furniture, which won’t be needed.
Initially launching as a modular mission add-on for Palladyne’s Gremlin-X quadcopter mini-bomber, which will let a single aircraft toggle between precision-strike and counter-drone missions, effectively a small drone “fighter bomber,” the technology is planned to expand into a kit for drones made by others.
“One SwarmShot-equipped aircraft is a reusable interceptor. Multiple aircraft operating through IntelliSwarm become a coordinated kinetic swarm,” said Ben Wolff, President and CEO of Palladyne AI. “Gremlin-X gives us the first complete system, and the multi-OEM kit gives the partnership a path to scale.”
As for Mossberg, they are engineering the weapon module around a set of unique requirements of recoil, remote actuation, reliability, and safety. Meanwhile, Federal, building on recent counter-drone work with the U.S. Army, will determine the best loads for the module.
“Federal provides the terminal effect. Mossberg provides the weapon. Palladyne AI provides the reach, intelligence and teammates,” Wolff said.
SIG Debuts the Hornet
This week at the Association of the United States Army trade show in Washington, D.C., SIG Sauer exhibited not only its staple small arms but also a whole slate of drone technologies including the fixed-wing Scythe in two different sizes and the 5-inch Saber quad-copter.
The XRAY9 C-UAS optic, sure to see at least some trials with the NGSW…
And a super interesting .22 LR “payload attachment.”
Dubbed the MH322 M-Hornet, the module is a light (under 21 ounces), electronically actuated, remote-controlled .22 LR firearm designed to be used “across compact unmanned platforms.”
Servo-activated, it has a 20- or 25-round magazine and offers visible or IR laser aiming. With the “322” designator, you have to wonder how much of the Hornet is based on the P322 pistol, which uses a stainless steel internal chassis that holds the fire control unit and is one of the neatest new rimfire handguns on the market.
At SHOT Show earlier this year, we saw SIG with an underslung M250 6.8mm light machine gun on an APUS-60 quadcopter UAV, so it’s nice to see a more compact kinetic option as well.
The future is now, guys.