A recently released U.S. Navy image has confirmed the installation of new Coyote counter-drone interceptor launchers aboard the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Bainbridge. The upgrade marks a significant step in integrating lower-cost, loitering counter-UAS capabilities into the fleet.
The photograph, taken July 27 while Bainbridge sailed in the Ionian Sea, offers a clear view of the new launchers mounted on the port side of the ship’s aft superstructure near its Mk 41 Vertical Launch System.
The destroyer is one of three assigned to the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group, alongside USS Winston S. Churchill and USS Mitscher. Images from June also show the same launcher configuration on Winston S. Churchill.
This follows the Navy’s earlier announcement that destroyers escorting the Gerald R. Ford would be armed with Raytheon’s Coyote and/or Anduril’s Roadrunner-M interceptors. Both systems are designed to defeat incoming drone threats at a fraction of the cost of traditional surface-to-air missiles. Coyotes and Roadrunner-Ms can also loiter, allowing them to be launched preemptively or redirected in flight as the threat picture evolves.
The Coyote Block 2 interceptor, already in U.S. Army service as part of the Low, Slow, Unmanned Aircraft Integrated Defeat System (LIDS), costs around $100,000 per round. Roadrunner-M is priced in the low hundreds of thousands of dollars and can be recovered, refueled and relaunched. By contrast, a single SM-2 missile costs about $2 million, while an Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile is roughly $1.65 million.
The addition of these systems provides warships with an important extra layer of defense against the growing threat of aerial drones, particularly given the limited missile magazine capacity of destroyers and the difficulty of reloading at sea. Lessons learned from recent operations against Houthi drones in the Red Sea were a key factor in the Navy’s decision to deploy the launchers.
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While the new installations are currently confirmed on Bainbridge and Winston S. Churchill, it is unclear if Mitscher has received them. The Navy has tested Coyote and Roadrunner-M on other destroyers in the past and is evaluating whether to make them a standard capability across the fleet.
Alongside these interceptors, the service is pursuing additional defensive measures, including directed energy weapons, advanced electronic warfare systems and networked decoys, to strengthen its layered approach to countering aerial threats at sea.
For now, the new launchers on Bainbridge and Churchill represent a tangible, deployable boost in the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group’s ability to handle the evolving drone threat.
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Post Image Credit: U.S. Navy
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