Watch as the 103 Perdix micro-drones are launched from three F/A-18 Super Hornets at China Lake, California. The test, conducted in October 2016 by the Department of Defense, the Strategic Capabilities Office, partnering with Naval Air Systems Command, demonstrated advanced swarm behaviors such as collective decision-making, adaptive formation flying, and self-healing.
The demonstration is one of the first examples of the Pentagon using teams of small, inexpensive, autonomous systems to perform missions once achieved only by large, expensive ones.