The Air Wolf jet tactical drone of the American company Kratos launched a Switchblade barrage ammunition in flight. As reported by The Drive, this combination will help significantly increase the range of the Switchblade, allowing it to penetrate deeper into enemy territory.
Kratos has been teaching large drones to launch small ones for several years. In April, it tested an unmanned XQ-58A Valkyrie slave by launching an Altius-600 reconnaissance drone. This technology should extend the life of more expensive devices and increase the area of reconnaissance from the air.
Air Wolf is the cheapest and smallest of the series of reusable inexpensive Kratos drones, which can be sacrificed if necessary. It is based on the MQM-178 air target with a length of 3.3 meters and a width of 1.9 meters. The MQM-178 is launched from a pneumatic launcher, and it flies at speeds up to 772 kilometers per hour.
Switchblade barrage ammunition is manufactured by AeroVironment. These are tube-launching devices equipped with a folding wing. The basic version of the Switchblade, together with the warhead, weighs about 2.5 kilograms. It can fly from 20 to 40 minutes at a speed of up to 60 kilometers per hour. The barrage munition also has an enlarged version, but its technical characteristics are unknown.
Air Wolf was tested by launching a Switchblade barrage munition a few months ago, but it became known only in September. Exactly how Air Wolf was adapted to launch Switchblade is unknown. But the barrage munition is compact enough to be placed in the fuselage of a drone or suspended under the wing.
During the tests, the Switchblade was under the control of an operator. He maintained feedback via a data link on Air Wolf. Although the technical characteristics of the drone are not disclosed, the developers say that its combination with the Switchblade allows you to significantly increase the range of the barrage ammunition. Usually the latter is able to fly only about 10 kilometers.
The military plans that in the future, large drones will launch not one, but many small ones. We wrote more about their plans earlier.
Vasilisa Chernyavtseva