Flying ‘drone grenade’ is the future of airborne weaponry

It can be packed with munitions and has a range of 10km

The military has embraced drone technology in a big way, using it to avoid sending soldiers to their deaths.

Now there’s a new type of weaponised drone that was shown off at an arms conference in Florida last month.

It’s called the Drone-40 and it’s a low-cost 40mm munition that can be flown remotely into enemy territory and detonated.

Basically, it’s a drone grenade.

The weapon is fired from a conventional grenade launcher before four, helicopter-style rotors deploy in order to keep it aloft. It can fly for 12 minutes or hover for 20 minutes. It’s cruising speed is 20m/s and it has a range of 10km.

It doesn’t just have to be loaded with explosives. It can be used to deploy cameras or smoke bombs or just as a countermeasure to other UAVs.

Soldier Systems explains: ‘With these mixed of payload types, Drone-40 can be used individually, paired, or as a swarm, to a variety of effcts. For example, a team could launch one or more ISR configured munitions along with a swarm of anti-armor payloads and loiter over an ambush spot, waiting for a vehicle column.

‘With Multi-Round Simultaneous Impact mode, multiple effects can be acheived at once, depending on the types of payloads delivered.’