The U.S. military continues to experiment with advanced weapons, including solutions informed by Ukraine’s combat experience. Recently, the U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command and U.S. 4th Fleet shared images on X (formerly Twitter) from the Fleet Experimentation (FLEX) exercise, held from April 24 to 30. Among the showcased systems was a naval drone equipped with an air defense capability.
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According to the official release, the exercise focused on integrating artificial intelligence with both manned and unmanned platforms. Participating assets included crewed systems, such as the Freedom-class littoral combat ship USS Wichita (LCS-13), alongside various unmanned platforms.
One of the images features the CUSV (Common Unmanned Surface Vehicle) by Textron Systems fitted with the BRAWLR (Battery Revolving Adaptive Weapons Launcher, Reconfigurable) air defense system developed by Sierra Nevada Corporation. Notably, this solution has reportedly already undergone combat testing in Ukraine.
Last year, Sierra Nevada stated that its BRAWLR system had been deployed in an unnamed country where it successfully downed over 400 drones. This most likely refers to Ukraine, where the system was tested under real combat conditions.
The BRAWLR system is a highly flexible platform capable of integrating launchers for various missile types, ranging from APKWS to AIM-120 and even R-27. There have also been reports about plans to mount the system on autonomous ground platforms.
In the naval drone configuration, BRAWLR was demonstrated with the Multiple Launch Hydra System (MLHS) by Arnold Defense, capable of carrying up to 23 APKWS II rockets, along with two LAU-7 launchers.
With BRAWLR onboard, naval drones effectively transform into mobile air defense platforms. Moreover, the system can be configured with two MLHS launchers simultaneously. This “beast mode” setup allows for up to 46 APKWS rockets, enabling a single drone to intercept dozens of Shahed-type UAVs during one mission.
According to the manufacturer, operator training for BRAWLR takes about one week, while system setup requires as little as 10 minutes.
Earlier, Defense Express reported that Athens has raised concerns over a Ukrainian requirement that is delaying the launch of joint drone production in Greece.
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