This huge metal arm can snatch drones right out of the sky

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is working on a way to launch drones into flight and then snag them right out of the air with a system that can be loaded onto a truck or ship.

The agency recently released test footage of the next-gen drone tech, currently being developed under the callsign SideArm. It's designed to give the military the ability to manage the flight of large unmanned aerial systems (UASs, aka drones) from just about anywhere.

Using the current launch systems, putting these heavy-duty drones in the air requires the runway of a 90,000-ton aircraft carrier, along with a net to catch the aircraft when their flights come to an end. That setup obviously presents some logistical issues when there are no oceans around, so SideArm looks to make the launch pads more mobile.

The crane-like rail system snags the aircraft via its protruding hook, which slows the drone's approach to the net for a better-controlled stop. Since the rail can be folded into a standard 20-foot shipping container, it can be hauled by truck, ship or rail to be mounted on smaller ships, trucks or maybe even standalone launch sites.

The SideArm was tested using a 400-pound Lockheed Martin Fury UAS shot from a catapult. From the tests, researchers confirmed the current version of the system can handle re-entries of drones up to 1,100 pounds, which beat the design projections and has its testers ready to check out bigger and better aircraft.

Now that the SideArm has been tested successfully with the Fury, DARPA will look to try it with other drones to perfect the system. We're still pretty far from having the SideArm being used in the field, but once it comes into play, the use of heavy-duty drones will have no boundaries.