Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
General Atomics, Dynetics Advance 'Gremlins' UAS Concepts
Under the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program, the companies will advance their concepts to preliminary design stage.
Under Gremlins, aircraft will deploy volleys of small unmanned aircraft that a C-130 mother ship will retrieve in flight. (Image: Dynetics)
Under Gremlins, aircraft will deploy volleys of small unmanned aircraft that a C-130 mother ship will retrieve in flight. (Image: Dynetics)

Two companies are advancing concepts for small, reusable unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) that can be launched in volleys and retrieved in flight by a C-130 cargo aircraft under the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) “Gremlins” program. Plans call for one team to produce a demonstration system for flight tests in 2019.