Jake Godin
The Same Drone You Own Could Be Used As A Weapon In Conflict Zones
As drones proliferate the battlefield, soldiers need new methods to defend against any threat the devices may pose.
LEARN MOREJanuary 10, 2017
These U.S. fighter jets are releasing swarms of micro-drones.
They're called Perdix micro-drones, and they were originally developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Labs. The drones are meant for intelligence, surveillance and recon.
In October, 103 3-D printed drones were deployed from three F/A-18 Super Hornets.
The drones then completed "missions." The swarm was able to do collective decision-making, adaptive-formation flying and self-healing.
Self-healing is essentially the ability of a drone swarm to reconfigure its formation if one of the drones goes down.
It was the largest such test from the Defense Department. While these drones aren't weaponized, the U.S. has expressed interest in attack swarms for the future.
