We know from watching migratory birds that when many birds get together they can fly further with each individual bird spending less vital energy for the trip. In the military they learned this too with their aircraft, by drafting like bicycle riders in the Tour de France off the rider in front of them, riding in their slipstream. Now then there is a way to program UAVs or unmanned aerial vehicles in using these techniques to conserve fuel while flying in small swarms? I believe there is indeed; how so you ask?

Well consider a natural motion waving skin on a morphing aircraft fuselage and airfoils, next apply some haptics pressure sensors on the leading edge and nose cones of the UAVs and as the circular airflows come of the trailing edges of the wings on the UAVs and the back of the fuselage the aircraft in the rear will morph to accept the airflow in a way which it will do the most good.

For instance if a high intensity eddy is produced the UAV in the rear may create a dished out area of canal like surface to accept the eddy flow and use to suck up the airfoil like a Tornado rips off the roof of a house and since the surface will be canal shaped to accept the size and shape of the eddy, it will use it to its maximum advantage. Thus we should be able to increase life and use any drag we create for the formation.

By switching the lead aircraft like bicycle riders the extra-spent energy and fuel of the lead aircraft can return to the rear of the formation to conserve its fuel. Or an aircraft, which indeed is designed to create high intensity eddy flows and such would be full of lots of fuel in the front or lead and no armament or payload to deliver to the target. Its only job is to break wind and communicate with the rest of the units in the formation and perhaps block radar signature with shape shifting stealth technology while the other aircraft hide and wait using very little fuel and perhaps even doubling their range, time in the net-centric battlespace and increase payloads. I know you like this idea; dont deny it.