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…