WASHINGTON : US Air Force up for first flight test of Golden Horde munition swarms

WASHINGTON — As a U.S. Air Force fighter pilot closes in on a target, she fires four GPS-guided bombs. As the weapons swarm toward their destination, sharing information about their surroundings, one of the munitions sights a higher-priority target nearby. Instantly, the game plan changes — the bombs’ programming now directs two of the weapons toward the high-priority target, while the rest carry out the original strike. That scenario is similar to one the Air Force Research Laboratory plans to test this year using a Collaborative Small Diam…