US Navy develops cannon-launched 'swarming' drones

[nitpicker]

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-32334186

US Navy develops cannon-launched 'swarming' drones
16 April 2015

The US Navy is developing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones, that can be launched from a cannon and "swarm" in a co-ordinated attack. The drones will be able to fly autonomously and "overwhelm an adversary", the US Office of Naval Research said of its Low-cost UAV Swarming Technology (Locust) programme.

Wings unfold once the drones are in the air and then they can fly in formation.

The US Navy plans to demonstrate the launch of 30 Locust drones in 2016.

As the drones and the launcher are relatively compact, the Locust system can be deployed from ships, aircraft or land vehicles, the ONR said.

(snip)

[DetlefK]

1. And with what weapons will they overpower the enemy?

The only practical solutions I can think of are
* overwhelm their optical and acoustic senses with loud screeching and bright flashes of light (possibly inducing epileptic fits)
* chemical weapons, e.g. using the drones to spray a chemical that hurts upon skin-contact but is non-lethal
* frag warheads