Australian Kamikaze Drone Armed With Shotgun Approved for Pentagon’s Buy List

The US Department of Defense has added Skyborne Technologies’ Cerberus MI shotgun-armed suicide drone to its Blue UAS Cleared List.

The listing allows US military and federal agencies to procure the Australian-made platform without requiring policy exceptions.

The Pentagon’s Defense Contract Management Agency approved the Group 2 unmanned aerial system following cybersecurity, supply chain, and foreign influence assessments under National Defense Authorization Act standards.

Reusable Airframe

Unlike conventional kamikaze drones designed for one-way missions, the Cerberus MI is a 40-pound (18-kilogram) man-portable aircraft built to return, reload, and fly again.

Its airframe is engineered to withstand weapon recoil and carries a 12-gauge shotgun that can be replaced with a 40mm low-velocity grenade launcher.

Guided by onboard artificial intelligence, the system fuses sensor data for human-in-the-loop targeting at distances exceeding 300 meters (984 feet).

The drone flies for roughly 35 minutes when armed, has a payload capacity of 9 pounds (4 kilograms), and reaches speeds of up to 54 kilometers (34 miles) per hour.

“Cerberus MI was designed around that principle — a reusable, reloadable direct-fire UAS with an expanding weapon ecosystem, using standard ammunition to deliver low cost per shot and greater magazine depth,” said Adrian Dudok, chief executive for US operations at Skyborne.

Offering Adaptive Solutions

Founded in 2014 with operations in Virginia, the Queensland-headquartered company designed the platform to provide an adaptable and affordable system for counter-drone missions and direct-fire attacks.

“Our focus has been on building a system that can adapt to emerging operational requirements without continually replacing the underlying hardware,” said Michael Creagh, chief executive of APAC at Skyborne.

Source: Drone Front