USA has ordered 4,000 attack drones Kiwi to Swarm Defense Technologiesa Michigan company that offers a system for control swarms with dozens of unmanned aerial vehicles with a single operator. According to Interesting Engineering, the order includes ammunition and has a minimum amount equivalent to about 21.8 million euros.
Kiwi is a four-propeller FPV drone which in this version is designed to hit a target with an explosive charge. The assignment corresponds to its single-use attack configuration, although the platform can also adapt to surveillance, reconnaissance or load launching tasks.
The manufacturer assures that Strike Deckits control program, allows coordinate dozens of devices from the same interface. The system automates the flight between marked points on a route and adjusts trajectories to prevent the drones from colliding with each other. The operator can modify the formation path while in the air.
The choice of targets and the authorization of attacks remain in human hands. The program also helps guide the drones during the final approach to the designated target. This automation allows the pilot to supervise several devices without having to manually control each one during the entire flight..
The president of Swarm Defense Technologies, Adam Wrightmaintains that this way of operating also reduces pilot training time. Wright, former member of the special forces SEAL of the Navy American, assures that ‘Anyone can learn to fly five of them simultaneously after a few hours of training’. Its objective is for one pilot to be able to perform tasks that would normally require several.
According to the manufacturer, Kiwi has a range of 22.5 kilometers with two kilos of load and 16km when carrying four. Measure 99 centimeters diagonally with the propellers deployed and 73cm With them folded, their weight without payload is 3.6 kilos and the average autonomy of 25 minutes. The platform supports different equipment and sensors depending on the mission.
The order arrives after the round of testing Gauntlet II held in Fort CarsonColorado for the program Drone Dominance from the Pentagon. There, military operators evaluated the drones of the participating companies in different types of missions. The award to Swarm Defense Technologies is part of this program that provides acquire more than 200,000 drones by 2027 through successive competitions and orders from selected manufacturers.
The Swarm Defense experience with large groups of drones comes from the light show business. The company was born from Firefly Drone Showswhich has built more than 20,000 devices since 2017. Both share engineering and manufacturing resources in Auburn Hills. The Kiwis will be produced there in a facility of approximately 3,700 square meters.
The company also works with the Defense Innovation Unit of the Pentagon in a project to deploy drones from containers. The idea is to leave them ready on the ground until a remote operator orders them to be launched for a surveillance or attack mission. This development has an agreement for a prototype in the initial phase and is independent of the order for the 4,000 Kiwi.