L3Harris Unveils Wolf Pack Drones for Cost-Effective Swarm Attacks

L3Harris introduced its innovative Wolf Pack series of uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) on July 17, 2025, designed to overwhelm adversaries with low-cost, swarming drones equipped with kinetic and non-kinetic payloads. Priced at $300,000 to $400,000 per unit, these modular UAS offer affordable mass, compelling enemies to expend pricier defenses, and join a competitive field of long-range, recoverable munitions.

Red Wolf and Green Wolf: Modular Swarm Capabilities

The Wolf Pack series includes two variants—Red Wolf for electronic attack and Green Wolf for kinetic strikes—both sharing a modular design for diverse payloads. “You can think of these as open system architectures, multi-function processing and data solutions, as well as avionics infrastructure,” said Jen Lewis, L3Harris president of airborne combat systems. The electronic warfare capabilities “are advanced, fully integrated suites,” she added. “We deploy those on tactical maritime and ground platforms, tactical airborne systems.

”Red Wolf excels in detecting, identifying, and reporting battlefield targets, while Green Wolf delivers precise kinetic strikes. Both support in-flight retargeting and collaboration, launched from helicopters, drones, or surface systems. “The Red and Green Wolf are each interoperable across domains, and the modular design really [give]…them that commonality. This really enables the DOD to cost share and get efficiency in their spending,” Lewis said.

Cost-Imposing Strategy and Rapid Development

With 41 test flights completed, the Wolf Pack transitioned from concept to production in under five years. Priced significantly lower than traditional cruise missiles (over $1 million each), the drones fly at high subsonic speeds, reach 40,000 feet, and cover 200 nautical miles. Their design balances visibility to lure costly enemy responses with stealth for select missions. “We’d love for them to shoot them down with some $2 million to $3 million missiles,” said Matthew Klunder, vice president for Navy/Marine Corps business, highlighting the cost-imposing strategy.

“Our whole goal is to give our warfighters the advantage, and we know how to do that,” Klunder added. The modular design supports diverse roles like decoys, target tracking, and communications relay, with software enabling autonomous swarming. “Think about the other things we can do here,” Lewis said, “like decoys, target tracking, [communications] relay.”

Deployment and Scalability for DoD Missions

Currently in low-rate initial production, the Wolf Pack equips Marine AH-1Z and Navy Seahawk helicopters, with potential for 12 units on F/A-18E/F or inside F-35 weapon bays. “If they chose to utilize our munition, we could certainly provide it,” Klunder said, noting compatibility with containerized launches like Rapid Dragon. The Green Wolf could complement the Air Force’s ADM-160 MALD, offering lower costs and more options. “As the Air Force starts to see this operating in those kind of real environments, I think [it] is probably going to get very interested,” Klunder added.

Sterling Jones, vice president and general manager of L3Harris’ agile development group, emphasized flexibility: “Some customers have requested that parachutes be added to allow recovery of some rounds for training purposes, and L3Harris was able to accommodate that request.” Production is scaling up in Ashburn, Virginia, on a modular assembly line, supporting cost-effective, high-volume output.