Federal Ammunition, Mossberg, and Palladyne AI to develop drone

Federal Ammunition, Mossberg, and Palladyne AI Corp. (NASDAQ: PDYN) announced a joint development agreement for SwarmShot, a modular autonomous airborne counter-drone system designed to allow compatible drones to function as reusable air-to-air interceptors.

The system will combine Federal Ammunition's counter-UAS shotshell ammunition, a lightweight airborne weapon module from Mossberg, and Palladyne AI's IntelliSwarm autonomy system, which includes BRAIN avionics and SwarmOS collaborative autonomy software.

SwarmShot will first be developed as a modular add-on for Palladyne AI's Gremlin-X Group 1 quadcopter. Following qualification on that platform, the companies plan to offer SwarmShot as an integration kit for compatible third-party unmanned aircraft.

Palladyne AI said the system draws on autonomous swarming capability it demonstrated with the U.S. Army at Project Convergence Capstone 6. During those exercises, SwarmOS enabled unmanned aircraft from multiple manufacturers to share information and allocate responsibilities in real time while soldiers retained authority over weapons use.

"One SwarmShot-equipped aircraft is a reusable interceptor. Multiple aircraft operating through IntelliSwarm become a coordinated kinetic swarm," said Ben Wolff, President and CEO of Palladyne AI.

Federal Ammunition, part of The Kinetic Group owned by CSG Group (Euronext Amsterdam: CSG), will lead ammunition design, drawing on a recent U.S. Army counter-UAS ammunition contract. Mossberg will develop the airborne weapon module, and Palladyne AI will handle UAS integration, fire control, and multi-interceptor coordination.

"This is not simply an existing shotgun mounted to a drone," said Doug Bell, President and COO of Mossberg. "Mossberg will engineer a lightweight airborne weapon module around the unique requirements of recoil, remote actuation, reliability, and safety."

The development program is expected to include ammunition testing, airborne weapon integration, live-fire flight testing, and integration with third-party sensors and command systems. Development schedules, potential customer engagements, and financial terms were not disclosed.

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