DARPA designed tech that can snag 1,100-pound drones right out of the air

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. SEE ALSO: Meet the robonauts: NASA's humanoid robots 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.