NIFTY: Ford carrier group equipped with new anti-drone weapons for possible Mideast deployment.

The strike group’s Arleigh Burke-class, guided-missile destroyers will deploy with the Coyote and Roadrunner systems, two interceptor-style drone systems that the Navy has spent the past year developing for ship-based launches, two service officials said. The Coyote and Roadrunner systems, which were modified from existing land-based technologies, are specialized drones designed to stop other drones before they reach their intended targets. The new weapons are intended to counter Houthi drones for a fraction of the price of a standard missile typically used by the Navy.

“Those two systems are part of that attempt to get after the cost curve, give our commanding officers more options to engage the threat and ultimately be more effective in defending a high-value unit,” Capt. Mark Lawrence, commander of Destroyer Squadron 2, said aboard the Ford as the aircraft carrier trained some 100 miles off the East Coast.

Six destroyers will support the Ford during its deployment, strike group leaders said. It is unclear how many of the destroyers will be Coyote and Roadrunner capable.

Maybe the real news here is that the Navy was able to take a land system and get it ship-ready and deployed in a year.