Cummings Aerospace tests single-operator control of two jet-powered Hellhound drones

Cummings Aerospace demonstrated two of its jet-powered Hellhound S3 attack drones flying at once under the control of a single handheld system, the company said in an announcement dated October 12, 2026.

The test was on August 25, 2026, at the Pendleton UAS Range in Oregon. The drones launched one after another from a launcher mounted on a Polaris utility vehicle. Both carried inert payloads. They flew different pre-programmed routes at different speeds while one operator monitored them.

Before launch, a company engineer used the handheld fire control system to set waypoints, altitudes and flight paths for each drone. In the air, the aircraft flew their routes autonomously and exchanged data with the controller, letting the operator watch both flights in real time and adjust or abort either mission. Cummings Aerospace described the arrangement as centralized supervision of separate autonomous missions, and did not describe direct coordination between the drones themselves.

Chief executive Sheila Cummings said the approach would let a single soldier put multiple Hellhounds on multiple targets at once. Controlling several S3s from one handheld system, she said, lets a small unit produce fires that used to require an entire battery.

The company said the demonstration met all of its objectives and produced several firsts for the Hellhound S3: the first launch from a vehicle, the first sequential firing, and the first time one operator managed multiple Hellhounds through the same control system. It was also the first use of a new launcher built to carry up to eight Hellhounds. The company said the launcher is light enough for two people to lift and can be fitted to different military vehicles.