{"id":18102,"date":"2019-02-17T22:18:02","date_gmt":"2019-02-18T03:18:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/uk-is-close-to-adding-swarming-attack-drones-to-its-military-arsenal\/"},"modified":"2019-02-17T22:18:02","modified_gmt":"2019-02-18T03:18:02","slug":"uk-is-close-to-adding-swarming-attack-drones-to-its-military-arsenal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/?p=18102","title":{"rendered":"UK is close to adding swarming attack drones to its military arsenal"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>UK is close to adding swarming attack drones to its military arsenal<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>  \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t  \t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/image-1.jpg\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">  \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/image-1.jpg\" \/>  \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\t  \t\t\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A drone flies outside of the Aeryon Labs Inc. headquarters in Waterloo, Ontario, on April 14, 2016. <!--more--><\/p>\n<p>JAMES MACDONALD\/BLOOMBERG  \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>  \tSwarms of small attack drones that confuse and overwhelm anti-aircraft defenses could soon become an important part of the modern military arsenal, Britain\u2019s defense secretary said, something that would mark a major evolution in robot-enabled warfare.<\/p>\n<p>  \tSpeaking at the London-based Royal United Services Institute think tank, British defense secretary Gavin Williamson said Britain will fund the development of \u201cswarm squadrons of network enabled drones capable of confusing and overwhelming enemy air defenses,\u201d noting that such vehicles would complement the British fleet of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters.<\/p>\n<p>  \tHe seemed to confirm what some military experts have said for years: The technology to enable synchronized drone swarms is here, and military leaders are starting to embrace the idea of building it into their operations.<\/p>\n<p>  \tTech companies have demonstrated that they can organize drone swarms for complex light shows and other flashy endeavors. And some widely publicized systems tests in the U.S. have shown how the military can adapt that concept for its own use.<\/p>\n<p>  \t\u201cThis idea that was once science fiction, then heresy, is now out there in the discourse and increasingly accepted,\u201d said Peter Singer, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation who studies the future of warfare.<\/p>\n<p>  \tWilliamson initially said those systems would be deployed \u201cby the end of the year,\u201d a target that experts said is unrealistic. The Ministry of Defense later seemed to retract that timeline, telling the trade publication U.K. Defense Journal that the technology actually \u201cwill be developed over a 3-year programme.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>  \tPaul Scharre, a senior fellow with the Center for New American Security, said Williamson\u2019s plan would place Britain near the forefront of integrating drone swarms into military operations if officials follow through.<\/p>\n<p>  \t\u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of experimentation and some vision documents, but to date, the U.S. has not moved out on building a drone capability that could take down air defenses,\u201d Scharre said. \u201cWhat ends up getting the most funding is human-inhabited aircraft.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>  \tThe U.S. military has been exploring different iterations and uses of the drone swarm concept for more than a decade, using research programs bearing names like CICADA, Gremlins and Valkyrie.<\/p>\n<p>  \tSince 2006, the Naval Research Lab has maintained an exploratory research-and-development program called Close-in Covert Autonomous Disposable Aircraft, or \u2018CICADA\u2019 for short. It envisions tiny, disposable aircraft that are meant to be deployed in large numbers to \u201cseed\u201d areas with small, electronic sensors, something that could allow military surveillance of dense jungle areas without sending a human pilot into enemy territory.<\/p>\n<p>  \tAn experimental program called Gremlins is looking for a way to launch small, jet-powered drones out of the belly of a C-130 cargo plane and to recover them later, effectively turning the plane into a flying aircraft carrier.<\/p>\n<p>  \tSome of those efforts are starting to bear fruit.<\/p>\n<p>  \tIn a 2016 systems test that the Pentagon called \u201cone of the most significant tests of autonomous systems under development by the Department of Defense,\u201d a swarm of more than a hundred micro-drones dropped out of the belly of F\/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets and flew in tandem, according to a Defense Department news release and video.<\/p>\n<p>  \tWill Roper, who now serves as assistant Air Force secretary, described that swarm in a Jan. 2017 as \u201ca collective organism, sharing one distributed brain for decision-making and adapting to each other like swarms in nature.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>  \tAt least one defense contractor is investing in autonomous aircraft that would collaborate with manned fighter jets.<\/p>\n<p>  \tA company called Kratos Defense and Security Solutions produces two classes of jet-powered drones, called the UTAP-22 Mako and the XQ-222 Valkyrie, which executives have said are built for that purpose. The company has received research funding from the Air Force Research Lab and the Pentagon\u2019s Defense Innovation Unit to develop them.<\/p>\n<p>  \tU.S. military leaders have maintained that any weaponry that uses artificial intelligence will have to have humans \u201cin or on the loop,\u201d meaning combat robots could navigate and select targets on their own but would require a humans to pull the triggers.<\/p>\n<p>  \tEven so, experts who study the future of warfare say the individual drones within the swarm would have to be partially or fully autonomous, something officials might not be comfortable with.<\/p>\n<p>  \t\u201cThe swarm idea inherently drives you towards autonomy,\u201d said Singer, the New America Foundation fellow. \u201cThe whole idea of a swarm is not just that it\u2019s a lot of them, but a lot of them working together, sharing information across the swarm.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>  \tWhile the Air Force has a lot of experience operating remotely-controlled Predator and Reaper drones, employing drone swarms would mean figuring out how a single human could command masses of robots and still have a degree of control over them.<\/p>\n<p>  \tMilitary scientists are working on solutions to that problem. A DARPA-funded program called Offensive Swarm-enabled Tactics envisions future infantry forces using swarms of more than 250 drones at once to \u201caccomplish diverse missions in complex urban environments.\u201d The agency awarded contracts to Carnegie Mellon, Cornell University, Siemens Corporation and others to help figure out how humans can command and interact with swarms on the battlefield.<\/p>\n<p>  \tFor some obvious and not-so-obvious reasons, arms control experts are concerned. Kingston Reif, director for disarmament and threat control policy at the Arms Control Association, said he is worried that drone swarms could increase the risk of a nuclear first strike if they were used to upset missile defenses. There is also a possibility that they could be used to deliver chemical or biological weapons.<\/p>\n<p>  \t\u201cThis is an example of another emerging technology that potentially holds great military promise,\u201d Reif said, \u201cbut also peril.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>article continues below <\/p>\n<h2>related articles<\/h2>\n<p>  \t\t\t  \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t                   \t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t                \t\t          \t         \t             \t                             \t     \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" title=\"The Pentagon&#039;s Strategic Capabilities Office unveiled the Perdix micro-drone swarm to millions of television viewers Sunday night on CBS in what the military officials called &quot;one of the most significant tests of autonomous systems under development.&quot; Courtesy of the Defense Department\" alt=\"The Pentagon&#039;s Strategic Capabilities Office unveiled the Perdix micro-drone swarm to millions of television viewers Sunday night on CBS in what the military officials called &quot;one of the most significant tests of autonomous systems under development.&quot;&lt;br&gt;Courtesy of the Defense Department\" src=\"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/image-2.jpg\" \/>\t\t\t\t \t\t\t \t\t     \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<h6><a href=\"https:\/\/www.stripes.com\/news\/pentagon-unveils-perdix-micro-drone-swarm-1.448124\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pentagon unveils Perdix micro-drone swarm<\/a><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UK is close to adding swarming attack drones to its military arsenal<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tA drone flies outside of the Aeryon Labs Inc. headquarters in Waterloo, Ontario, on April 14, 2016. <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tJAMES MACDONALD\/BLOOMBERG<\/p>\n<p>\tSwarms of small attack drones that confuse and overwhelm anti-aircraft defenses could soon become an important part of the modern military arsenal, Britain\u2019s defense secretary said, something that would mark a major evolution in robot-enabled warfare.<\/p>\n<p>\tSpeaking at the London-based Royal United Services Institute think tank, British defense secretary Gavin Williamson said Britain will fund the development of \u201cswarm squadrons of network enabled drones capable of confusing and overwhelming enemy air defenses,\u201d noting that such vehicles would complement the British fleet of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters.<\/p>\n<p>\tHe seemed to confirm what some military experts have said for years: The technology to enable synchronized drone swarms is here, and military leaders are starting to embrace the idea o..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18103,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18102\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}