The US Army is planning a new exercise to launch the largest interactive squadron of drones ever, according to a report in The War Zone.

The Utah desert will be crowded with drones later this month, as the US military plans to conduct an international exercise that will see up to 30 small drones deploy to the area as a dual air attack mission.

This operation is the largest in a group of interactive air operations that the US military has ever tested, and this system is called "ALES" for short.

“We feel we are going to fly the largest interactive squadron of drones ever in partnership with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and our science and technology experts,” Walter Rogen, Army Vertical Propulsion Team Leader, told The War Zone. We'll see expanded use of electronic warfare and expanded use of interactive drone squadrons."

The Army's experimental event - called "EDGE 22" - will be held from April 25 to May 12, near Salt Lake City, the capital of the western state of Utah, and the exercise will see the use of a mixture of drones from The ALTIUS 600, Coyote and Raytheon models.

The Alice system includes a variety of electronic systems launched from helicopters, which can then be controlled by the cabin crew or can fly independently, providing information to both the helicopter and ground forces - connected as a single network -.

Rogen said the squadron will approach the target area, sense enemy forces using infrared sensors and electronic warfare software that can detect signal emissions, determine their locations, and feed that information back over the network to command posts and manned attack aircraft.

Variety of drones in Alice

The Altios 600 drones weigh between 20 and 27 pounds, can fly for at least 4 hours, and can be fitted with a warhead for offensive missions or used as an anti-drone weapon.

Meanwhile, the Coyote's drones feature a rear thrust strut, a set of pop-up wings and a double-winged tail, which initially led them to be marketed as low-cost intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms, and were later used to collect data from within the 2017 cyclones.

"The purpose of Alice is to be able to control offensive decisions," Rogen said.