Aerial Drone Swarms and the U.S. Naval Cryptologic Community (Guest Post)

LTJG Louis Catalano is a Cryptologic Warfare Officer attending the Cryptologic Warfare Officer Basic Course. He received his BS in Aeronautical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2020. His current research interest is in aerospace information systems with a focus in unmanned aerial systems, automation, artificial intelligence, GIS, and remote sensing.

In October 2016, the Pentagon’s Strategic Capabilities Office released a video showing three F/A-18 Super Hornets flying in formation. One of the aviators onboard can be heard counting down from five before announcing release. Except, it was not a bomb or missile being dropped from the winged arsenal of these fighter jets; instead, it was a far more terrifying weapon: a drone swarm. The video demonstrated the deployment of 103 swarm drones from specially-designed pods attached to the wings of these F/A-18s. Eventually, the video transitions to a screen capture of a digital map and several tiny plane-like icons scattered and moving around sporadically. Suddenly, the icons begin moving in what appears to be a coordinated effort to a single point on the map (U.S. Department of Defense). It is jarring to see what is evidently each drone flying in such an organized fashion and it is only natural to wonder what this technology is truly capable of and how much it has developed since 2016. Have adversaries of the U.S. been developing this technology as well and if so, what are the countermeasures? And is the naval cryptologic community prepared to defend the fleet from drone swarm attacks especially as conflict with near-peer rivals such as China nears? The purpose of this paper is not to answer these questions but rather, contribute to a discussion that is long overdue.