The Pentagon, as part of the Low-Cost Cruise Missile (LCCM) project, has completed the development of a weapon that provides the creation of a swarm of low-cost unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) Coyote version of Block 3 from Raytheon, allowing to carry out “saturating” attacks of enemy air defense (AA), reports The Drive.
According to the publication, UAVs as part of a swarm are capable, in particular, of retargeting and exchanging tasks, as well as conducting synchronized massive attacks on enemy air defense systems (for example, Russia and China), leading to the fact that the number of targets to defeat significantly exceeds the capabilities the firepower of the defending side.
The Drive notes that LCCM technologies may find application in the Golden Horde semi-autonomous precision weapon system of the US Air Force (Air Force), which was tested, in particular, in February.
The publication writes that drones in the swarm can perform various tasks, in particular, reconnaissance and strike, as well as act as decoys. Among the declared capabilities of the created system – “dynamic response to the priority environment of threats with simultaneous implementation of joint identification and distribution of targets along with synchronized attacks.”
The Drive notes that the Pentagon has donated development materials to the US Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. The Drive emphasizes that Coyote can be used to refer to both a UAV and a cruise missile in the documentation.
In February, the FlightGlobal portal wrote that in the penultimate week of the same month, during the joint use of four GBU-39 / B SDB bombs integrated into the Golden Horde system, four targets were simultaneously successfully hit.
In March 2020, at the Air Warfare Symposium 2020 event in Orlando, Florida, the US Air Force showed an animation of a strike against an enemy by the promising Golden Horde system, which involves the use of artificial intelligence and communications.
In December 2019, the American publication Popular Mechanics wrote that the US Air Force wanted to use the Golden Horde system against its opponents.