Posted on Oct 30, 2022
The US Navy wants swarms of thousands of small drones
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The US Navy is working on ways to build, deploy, and control thousands of small drones that are able to flock together to overwhelm anti-aircraft defenses with sheer numbers, budget documents reveal.
The conflict in Ukraine has proved the worth of small drones, including consumer quadcopters, which have carried out reconnaissance, guided artillery fire, and destroyed tanks. Such drones are currently limited by the fact that each one needs its own operator. In a swarm, however, hundreds or thousands of drones are controlled as a single unit.
“The significance of drone swarms is that they can be conceivably applied to virtually any mission.” says Zachary Kallenborn, a policy fellow at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University.
The conflict in Ukraine has proved the worth of small drones, including consumer quadcopters, which have carried out reconnaissance, guided artillery fire, and destroyed tanks. Such drones are currently limited by the fact that each one needs its own operator. In a swarm, however, hundreds or thousands of drones are controlled as a single unit.
“The significance of drone swarms is that they can be conceivably applied to virtually any mission.” says Zachary Kallenborn, a policy fellow at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University.
The US Navy wants swarms of thousands of small drones
Posted from technologyreview.com
Drones
Policy
George Mason University
Technology
Posted >1 y ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."“In many ways it is no more daunting than the idea of flying a plane off a ship, or coordinating the movements of hundreds of manned planes, must have seemed to generations past,” says Singer.
The swarm could take on all sorts of other missions, from reconnaissance and intelligence gathering to electronic warfare and supply delivery. As Singer notes, it could work alongside crewed systems.
“Just as Amazon envisions a world of both robotic 18-wheeler trucks for bulk and small delivery drones for the final mile, we’ll likely see the same with their military parallels,” he says.
Kallenborn says that Super Swarm will not necessarily be a war winner, because military researchers are already working on ways to counter swarms."
..."“In many ways it is no more daunting than the idea of flying a plane off a ship, or coordinating the movements of hundreds of manned planes, must have seemed to generations past,” says Singer.
The swarm could take on all sorts of other missions, from reconnaissance and intelligence gathering to electronic warfare and supply delivery. As Singer notes, it could work alongside crewed systems.
“Just as Amazon envisions a world of both robotic 18-wheeler trucks for bulk and small delivery drones for the final mile, we’ll likely see the same with their military parallels,” he says.
Kallenborn says that Super Swarm will not necessarily be a war winner, because military researchers are already working on ways to counter swarms."
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That reminds of the movie Angel has Fallen when the swarm of drones attack the President boat.
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