The Army may start fielding loitering munitions by the middle of next year amid a push to adopt innovative technology seen in Ukraine, the head of Army Futures Command said Wednesday.
“I think you’ll see those start delivering in the first half of next year,” Gen. James Rainey said at a media roundtable at the Pentagon. The Army sees the acquisitions process as an “iterative” task, in which the munitions become better and better with each purchase, he added.
The Army in July announced a program for equipping Army brigades with loitering munitions. The effort, dubbed Project LASSO, seeks to put more weapons capable of destroying enemy tanks into the hands of average infantry units.