U.S. military officials have announced that they’ve carried out their largest ever test of a drone swarm released from fighter jets in flight. In the trials, three F/A-18 Super Hornets released 103 Perdix drones, which then communicated with each other and went about performing a series of formation flying exercises that mimic a surveillance mission.
But the swarm doesn’t know how, exactly, it will perform the task before it’s released. As William Roper of the Department of Defense explained…
Perdix are not pre-programmed synchronized individuals, they are a collective organism, sharing one distributed brain for decision-making and adapting to each other like swarms in nature. Because every Perdix communicates and collaborates with every other Perdix, the swarm has no leader and can gracefully adapt to drones entering or exiting the team.
They’re not required to behave like human sheeple. Should we worry?
Just in case you wondered what that sound was over the National Mall in DC on Saturday.
“So, You Want to Take Out a Drone Swarm : The Russian military looks to countermeasures and electronic warfare as the U.S. military develops robotic swarms” https://warisboring.com/so-you-want-to-take-out-a-drone-swarm-e423ff57cf4d#.76cxi2lid
Meanwhile the U.S. DoD Strategic Capabilities Office (SOC) has said its goal is to scale the size of the swarms to batches of up to 1,000.
“MIT Grooms Tomorrow’s AI Developers by Making Them Battle Each Other” https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/mit-grooms-tomorrows-ai-developers-by-making-them-battle-each-other
“Approaching to autonomous controlling swarm of UAVs : Researchers have developed a new technique to achieve tight formation control of UAVs” (Science China Information Sciences 7/23/17) https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-07/scp-ata072317.php
“The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has been conducting research into a number of types of swarming drones that could be used on the battlefield. The latest of these is the “Gremlins” program—an effort to build relatively low-cost unmanned aircraft that can be launched from a “mothership” transport aircraft and then be recovered by the mothership after their mission is complete.
This past week, the Defense Department conducted the first airborne launch test for the Dynetics X-61A Gremlins Air Vehicle, a jet-powered drone that can be launched from the rotary weapons bays of the B-1 and B-52, from wing pylons, or from a C-130—and then recovered by a C-130 equipped with a docking cable and a crane-like recovery arm.” (includes links and video) https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/01/here-come-the-gremlins-dod-tests-drone-launch-from-c-130-mothership/
DARPA press release “Gremlins Program Completes First Flight Test for X-61A Vehicle” (1/17/2020) https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2020-01-17
“US Air Force tests swarming smart bombs” https://www.aerospacetestinginternational.com/news/defense/us-air-force-tests-swarming-smart-bombs.html “Collaborative Small Diameter Bombs (CSDBs) are Small Diameter Bombs that have been modified with a collaborative autonomy payload.
“Weapons that use this technology are semi-autonomous since they abide by pre-defined Rules of Engagement and only execute based on an approved list of plays.”
Garry Haase, Director of the AFRL Munitions Directorate said, “This successful Golden Horde demonstration builds the foundation for integrating this technology into a variety of other weapon systems, which will help the US maintain a technological advantage over our adversaries.”
“Collaborative Bombs Fall Short in First Golden Horde Flight Test” https://www.airforcemag.com/collaborative-bombs-fall-short-in-first-golden-horde-flight-test/
“A group of networked bombs failed to hit the right target in the Air Force’s first flight test of its nascent weapon-swarming technology last month, posing a new obstacle as the service tries to speed the concept to the battlefield.
On Dec. 15, the Air Force Test Center dropped two Collaborative Small Diameter Bombs from an F-16 jet to see whether the modified weapons could work together. The bombs use autonomous tools to “talk” to each other in flight and carry out missions as a team.”