---
title: "DARPA Is Working on a Gigantic, Flying Aircraft Carrier"
description: "The US military is developing an aircraft carrier loaded up with semi-autonomous drones that flies in the air instead of floating on water."
date: "2021-03-29"
modified: "2021-03-29"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/darpa-gigantic-flying-aircraft-carrier"
categories:
  - "DARPA"
  - "Military"
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "DARPA"
  - "drones"
  - "military technology"
  - "the digest"
---

# DARPA Is Working on a Gigantic, Flying Aircraft Carrier

![The US military is developing an aircraft carrier loaded up with semi-autonomous drones that flies in the air instead of floating on water.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/FLIGHT-DECK.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Jack Richardson / Futurism\</em\>*

## Paging Nick Fury

The Pentagon has a bold plan to keep aircraft carriers relevant to the future of warfare: taking them out of the water and lifting them up into the sky.

The plan sounds laughably similar to [the Helicarriers](<https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Helicarrier>) from the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, [but *The Economist* reports](<https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2021/03/25/aircraft-carriers-take-to-the-air>) that DARPA, the Pentagon's research division, is dead serious about getting the program off the ground. The current project involves a flying mothership plane that can deploy and collect cheaply-made drones called Gremlins that can swarm around, surveilling the area and perhaps even [engaging in combat](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/air-force-pilots-about-battle-autonomous-drones>) themselves.

## Flight Simulator

When it's time to deploy a Gremlin drone, the modified cargo-plane-turned-aircraft-carrier would simply drop them out of the sky. Their wings would then deploy as their engines turn on, allowing a human operator to command fleets of them at once.

When it's time to come back home, the drones would attempt to latch onto a small pod that dangles from the carrier like a strip of fly tape. So far, no one's managed to stick the landing, though *The Economist* notes that some attempts have "come within centimeters of a successful capture."

## Taking Flight

At first glance, flying aircraft carriers seem needlessly complicated, risky, and carbon-intensive compared to leaving them floating in the water. But the military is concerned, *The Economist* reports, about long-range missiles that can travel farther than the aircraft on the carriers can travel, rendering the paradigm useless.

Replacing them with comparatively-cheap drones that Gremlin program head Scott Wierzbanowski told *The Economist* can "go in and create havoc" before being shot down, then, makes the odd proposal a little bit more worthwhile.

**READ MORE:** [Aircraft carriers take to the air](<https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2021/03/25/aircraft-carriers-take-to-the-air>) \[*The Economist*\]

**More on military tech:** *[The U.S. Navy Wants to Roll out Autonomous Killer Robot Ships](<https://futurism.com/us-navy-autonomous-killer-robot-ships>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)