According to an investigation conducted by the Economist, the US defense agency is putting into practice projects aimed at the construction of a sort of "Mothership" aimed at managing various types of drones, both surveillance and attack, known by the code name Gremlins.
The Gremlins drones, equipped with a wingspan of 3, 5 meters and even 680 kg heavy, they have an individual operational autonomy of about 500 km and are extremely precise and versatile remote control machines, however lacking in terms of autonomy.
To hit a target in relative safety in fact , 500 km in total round trip (remember that we are talking about extremely expensive equipment, whose return in good condition is highly desirable) may currently not be enough in many cases. Hence, therefore, the need for a sort of mobile "support base", able to bring the flock of drones closer to the target, launch them and subsequently recover them, effectively increasing their operational autonomy.
According to rumors, the biggest problem currently is that of drone recovery, as many difficulties would have arisen during the coupling phase with the braking cables.
Although a design similar to flying aircraft carriers could be tremendously fascinating, it is actually very likely that these phantom "Helicarriers" (of which you can buy the Lego model via this link) are no more, no less than suitably modified transport planes.
As it turns out, in fact, DARPA would not be new to carrying out experiments carried out with Gremlins and C130 drones, the iconic heavy transport model that has been in service for decades. The hope is that the model behind DARPA is not the one used in the Insight project seen in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, or we might suspect that Hydra has taken over the US agency. In case, we hope there is a Captain America ready to intervene!