L3 Harris has announced that the number of successful test flights for its WOLF PACK family of small modular aerial vehicles have now passed the 45 mark.

According to the company, the system is mature and “ready to go”, with demonstrations having included both air and surface launches. The family currently includes the RED WOLF, a kinetic strike effector, and the GREEN WOLF, a non-kinetic electronic warfare variant.

Most notably, RED WOLF was air-launched by a USMC AH-1Z VIPER helicopter at Yuma Proving Grounds, in Arizona, back in November 2024.

The WOLF PACK concept involves the massed use of small, cheap, long-range, modular, multi-role aerial vehicles. The vehicles are flexible and reconfigurable, for example adjusting the size of warhead, payloads and fuel tanks. They feature an advanced software for in-flight collaboration and re-targeting, and support swarming capability.

The WOLF vehicles can be fully disposable or can be fitted with a parachute system to be recoverable where possible. The parachute recovery system has already been demonstrated in tests.

While using the same general body and software, the GREEN WOLF is an aerial vehicle meant to carry Electronic Warfare systems or sensors. Suitably configured GREEN WOLF effectors would deliver Detect, Identify, Locate and Report (DILR) functions in favour of other, lethal effectors beginning, of course, with the RED WOLF, which is the kinetic effector of the family, equipped with various sizes and types of warheads.

The WOLF PACK is intended to be launched from air, ground and maritime platforms utilizing standard interfaces in multi-role capacities. Flight testing of L3Harris’ launched effects began in 2020 and the tests conducted since have seen successful deployments from “crewed and uncrewed fixed-wing, rotorcraft and ground-based platforms”. They also are capable of rocket-assisted launches from ground or sea platforms.

Flight testing demonstrated high subsonic speeds and ranges of over 200 nautical miles at low altitudes and an endurance of over 60 minutes. L3Harris says they can fit proven propulsion jets suitable for high-speed release at altitudes above 40,000 feet, with “industry-leading propulsion maturity and demonstrated engine starts up to 40,000 feet without the use of pyrotechnics”.

According to the company, the production line at Ashburn, in Virginia, is ready to scale up production.

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