UAV components allow a hull to launch unmanned aerial vehicles that swarm an enemy target. This UAV, though it does an existing type of damage, is a new weapon type. The UAV will launch, fly directly to a single designated in-range enemy target, swarm that target for the listed amount of time (firing while swarming) and then will return to the host ship. Some important information regarding the UAV can be found below.
- UAVs have 100% accuracy and cannot be evaded; there's no chance they'll arrive at their target and "miss."
- Only specials that specifically modify "penetrative" weapons will affect Hornet UAVs. Most of these enhance penetrative accuracy, so they won't actually make a difference since UAV's never miss (cannot be evaded). The same goes for Dragonfly UAVs with ballistic specials.
- All countermeasure (anti-) weapons of any type will have a chance at shooting them down while in flight but not while swarming. All countermeasure weapons will behave exactly the same as they normally do with the exception of Anti-Mortars, which will only be able to take one shot each.
- A single hit from countermeasure weaponry will destroy a UAV.
- UAVs under normal circumstances can only attack one target per flight; if they destroy that target early, the UAV will return to the host ship rather than finding a new target. This can be bypassed, though, with the use of the UAV Powercells special; this will allow your UAV's the ability to chain to new targets once their initial target is destroyed, similar to the way missiles will retarget when used with laser targeting or when combined with a hull that has initiate retargetability.
- UAVs don't have repair times like drones; if UAVs are shot down, they will neither deplete (technically there are an infinite amount of UAVs available) nor will they contribute to the host ship's repair times.
- UAVs behave more like weapon projectiles than drones in that they don't contribute to repair times and in that they can't be manually assigned a new target once launched.
- UAVs can only be equipped to special combined weapon slots that support Air weapons (pictured below); these slots can be found on the hulls below.
- Triton - 4 UAV Weapon Slots (Same applies to the limited variant, Harlock's Triton)
- Super Fortress - 4 UAV Weapon Slots
- Floating Fortress A - 2 UAV Weapon Slots
- Floating Fortress - 2 UAV Weapon Slots
- Lightning Carrier - 5 UAV Weapon Slots (Same applies to the limited variant, Nash's Lightning Carrier)
- Atlas Carrier - 8 UAV Weapon Slots (Same applies to the limited variant, Harlock's Atlas Carrier)
- UAVs are now among the longest ranged ship-based weapons in the game.
For further information on UAVs, please see the UAV FAQ forum post here.