AIpowered

Defense startup SkyDefense LLC just launched an autonomous combat drone designed to take out enemy drone swarms at a much lower cost than traditional weapon systems. The company calls it the CobraJet — an uncrewed aerial vehicle (basically, a drone) designed for C-UAS (counter-unmanned aircraft system) missions. The drone combines Teledyne FLIR electro-optical and infrared sensors that do not contain restricted foreign parts, and Nvidia AI chips, allowing the drone to process the information that it sees with onboard sensors.

A different kind of VRAM

The CobraJet is also equipped with its proprietary Visual Realtime Area Monitoring (VRAM) system, allowing ground commanders to monitor the drone during autonomous operations and communicate with and control it, if needed. This gives its operator the option to let it operate on its own during reconnaissance, patrol, and identification, but still have a human making decisions when required. It can also use the same technology to communicate with other CobraJet units, allowing them to act together as a single entity to protect against enemy swarms.

Aside from its AI brain, the CobraJet also boasts an internal weapons bay and external hardpoints, allowing it to carry kamikaze drones, small missiles, or even fragmentation projectiles. It can also be modified to carry precision bombs and loitering munitions, making it a multirole drone. Its external design mimics that of the U.S.’s latest air superiority and multirole fighters, the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II, with vertical take-off and landing capabilities and thrust vectoring nozzles. This means it can operate from the back of a truck and have improved maneuverability, allowing it to go toe-to-toe with small and nimble drones.

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Asymmetric warfare answered?

CobraJet is SkyDefense’s solution to the emerging threat of drone swarms on the modern battlefield. These small and cheap weapons are widely used in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with the defending Ukrainians effectively using drones to initially counter the larger Russian army. Today, both sides in the conflict use UAVs, and actions on the battlefield highlight the U.S.’s need to develop a cost-effective counter.

While existing weapons like surface-to-air missiles and air-to-air missiles can engage drones, there’s often a huge mismatch in price between these two platforms. Missiles often cost between half a million to more than $4 million — while you can buy a cheap drone for just $200, with the more sophisticated ones, like Iran’s Shahed-136, only costing $20,000. You can also send up a platoon of combat choppers to engage a drone swarm with guns, but you’re risking several multi-million-dollar weapon platforms to combat cheap suicide drones.

(Image credit: SkyDefense LLC)

“Our USA-made CobraJets can communicate and coordinate as a flight team, enabling them to operate as an AI-powered unmanned Air Force,” said SkyDefense LLC President Nick Verini. “This team approach increases the effectiveness of the squadron while also significantly reducing the costs of destroying a swarm of enemy drones.”

SkyDefense LLC hasn’t released the unit cost of the CobraJet, but it’s going to be so much more affordable than the fighter jets it looks like, and the missiles they carry. The company is offering the drone to law enforcement, Homeland Security, and the U.S. military, giving them the ability to protect against hostile drone swarms without needing to spend copious amounts of money to take down such cheap weapons.

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