Swarming Aerial Drones

fredymac

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I looked for any previous posts on swarming quadcopters but I didn't find anything. Kind of odd that nobody has posted a video on those.
Here is the Navy's rendition of swarming drones. At the 38 second mark the video shows a cluster of drones operating in close proximity.
This is different from the quadcopter swarming videos in that there is no external master computer orchestrating the movements.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyguXoum3rk
 
Kind of a swarm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77gTSr07Jqs
 
'Innovative' UAV Demo In Alaska Precursor To Autonomous Swarming Project
insidedefense.com June 25, 2015


The Defense Department, as part of a high-profile annual military exercise in Alaska, demonstrated an innovative use of a large number of small, unmanned aerial vehicles, a precursor to exhibiting micro-UAVs capable of autonomous swarming behaviors and a move designed in part to display military advantage over China and Russia.
The Strategic Capabilities Office conducted last week's demonstration, according to a senior Pentagon official. The office is a Pentagon shop formed in 2012 to spearhead classified projects that cultivate cutting-edge technological concepts in a bid to give U.S. forces new advantages against sophisticated potential adversaries in the Asia-Pacific region.

Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work disclosed this development during a June 22 address to RAND Corp.'s newly formed China Aerospace Studies Institute.
"The SCO demonstrated innovative tactical uses of large numbers of micro UAVs," Work said, noting the event took place last week as part of Northern Edge 2015, a nearly two-week event that ends June 26. Northern Edge 2015 is a joint training exercise led by U.S. Pacific Command that is intended to prepare forces to respond to operate in the Asia-Pacific region.
At press time, the SCO did not respond to a request for further information about the event.
In February, the SCO revealed plans for a $12.6 million project using funds authorized in fiscal year 2015 to execute a program called "low-cost payloads" that aimed to deliver "near-term innovative capabilities" to combatant commanders that would culminate with an "end-to-end" demonstration during Northern Edge 2015 of four prototype systems.
In the upcoming fiscal year, the SCO plans to transition the "low-cost payloads" project into a "UAV payloads project" that "will leverage existing low-cost payloads by integrating them with UAVs (e.g. micro-UAVs) capable of autonomous swarming behaviors," according to the FY-16 budget request.
"This project seeks to demonstrate the operational effectiveness and tactical advantage provided by large numbers of collaborative, expendable platforms. Effectiveness analysis and prototyping of payloads integrated with UAVs will be conducted, with initial demonstrations planned in FY 2016," the request states.
The SCO, part of the Pentagon's acquisition directorate, "identifies, analyzes, demonstrates, and transitions game-changing applications of existing and near-term technology . . . to shape and counter emerging threats," according to the FY-16 budget request. "Currently focused on the Asia-Pacific Rebalance, SCO combines capability innovation with concepts of operation and information management to develop novel concepts often crossing Service, Defense-Intelligence, and multi-classification divides," according to the spending request sent to Congress in February. -- Jason Sherman
 
There's a new book out "Swarm Troopers: How small drones will conquer the world" -- web site here -- http://www.swarm-troopers.com/
- looks at various military swarm projects and a lot more.

Review copies available if you contact the author via the website.
 
Update videos. Looks like they had separate groups with one developing a tube launched drone while the other used cheap styrofoam drones (probably just to test swarming software).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FukTsKmXOo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwSj-iQ09n0
 
Sometimes you see something and you know you are looking at The Future.

I'm just not sure how to feel about it.
 

"Orbital ATK demonstrated its ability to combine both electronic and kinetic attack through its AUDS (anti-unmanned aerial vehicle defense system) which detects, tracks, identifies and defeats drones, and also brings a kinetic element through the integration of the company’s XM914 30mm Bushmaster Chain Gun mounted to the Stryker combat vehicle platform."

A chain gun against small drones? Good luck with that.
 
30mm ABM. Just a matter of finding the right dispense point to get multiple small drones in one pattern.
 
TomS said:
30mm ABM. Just a matter of finding the right dispense point to get multiple small drones in one pattern.

Those patterns above are relatively benign. Imagine instead the swarms are made up of these:




and maximizing use of speed, maneuverability, and randomness. A gun wouldn't have a prayer. The only things that will be able to deal with this kind of threat are DEWs. Whether SSLs, microwave, or whatnot, they're the only devices that have the speed and slew/elevation rate to cope. I firmly believe we'll see the day where somebody, probably China, will have plants the size of Teslas Gigafactory, turning out swarm components 24/7. The only tiny ray of sunshine is something as small as a drone won't have hundreds of miles of range, so the opportunity to kill the "archer" will exist.
 
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DENVER, Colorado — Last winter, on the outskirts of a large U.S. city, an FBI hostage rescue team set up an elevated observation post to assess an unfolding situation. Soon they heard the buzz of small drones — and then the tiny aircraft were all around them, swooping past in a series of “high-speed low passes at the agents in the observation post to flush them,” the head of the agency’s operational technology law unit told attendees of the AUVSI Xponential conference here. Result: “We were then blind,” said Joe Mazel, meaning the group lost
 
bobbymike said:
https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2018/05/criminal-gang-used-drone-swarm-obstruct-fbi-raid/147956/?oref=defense_one_breaking_nl

DENVER, Colorado — Last winter, on the outskirts of a large U.S. city, an FBI hostage rescue team set up an elevated observation post to assess an unfolding situation. Soon they heard the buzz of small drones — and then the tiny aircraft were all around them, swooping past in a series of “high-speed low passes at the agents in the observation post to flush them,” the head of the agency’s operational technology law unit told attendees of the AUVSI Xponential conference here. Result: “We were then blind,” said Joe Mazel, meaning the group lost

I saw this too. But something does not sound right. Note the vagueness of "large U.S. city," the claim that a major F.B.I hostage rescue somehow escaped press attention, the mention of "gangs", the promotional/trade conference, etc. I'm skeptical. It sounds like a story created to back an agenda of some sort, rather than an account of a real event.
 
"Air Superiority Under 2000 Feet: Lessons from Waging Drone Warfare Against ISIL"

- a very good read on what the threat from small drones looks like and how hard it is to tackle

 

Darpa has demonstrated algorithms that could enable small commercial drones to become autonomous scouts in urban battle zones or searchers for survivors inside buildings damaged by natural disasters.

In flight tests conducted under Phase 2 of the agency’s Fast Lightweight Autonomy (FLA) program, quadcopters flew between buildings and through alleyways in a mock town, and entered a building through a window, mapped the interior and navigated autonomously down a stairwell and out of an open door.

Building on Phase 1 flights in 2017, the tests at the Guardian Center urban training facility in Perry, Georgia, showed significant progress in outdoor as well as indoor autonomous flight scenarios, Darpa says.
 
sferrin said:
Swarms don't need huge warheads.

https://theaviationist.com/2018/01/08/defining-asymmetrical-warfare-extremists-use-retail-drones-to-attack-russian-air-base-in-syria/

and they apparently can fly much slower to the point typical air defense radar consider it as clutter, low RCS too.
 

Intel breaks record for drone swarm size. 1500 drones.

 
US Army has bought some of these. Have to figure the Navy would be interested one way or another. I wouldn't be surprised if this company gets bought out by a large prime once more orders start coming in.

 
Beside particular port authorities what purpose does this have? Seems like a robot that is major labor intensive
 
Beside particular port authorities what purpose does this have? Seems like a robot that is major labor intensive

Imagine, if you will, 60 or so of these little bots armed with an EFP warhead, launched from a sub aboard a carrier craft. The bots surround a ship through a full 360 degrees and then drive into that boat at or below the waterline. That could have a marked effect on the ship.

Very clever cluster bomblets.

Poke a couple dozen fist-sized holes in a 9,000 ton ship? Why not just have them swarm the ships sensors and mission-kill it?
 
Beside particular port authorities what purpose does this have? Seems like a robot that is major labor intensive

Imagine, if you will, 60 or so of these little bots armed with an EFP warhead, launched from a sub aboard a carrier craft. The bots surround a ship through a full 360 degrees and then drive into that boat at or below the waterline. That could have a marked effect on the ship.

Very clever cluster bomblets.
The storage of the things on your submarine and probability of mishaps... The low range thus exposing your submarine. The warhead effects (target splits itself in half on its own weight) design and the evolution of torpedos which work from further and further distances as technology improves fits the bill.
 
Beside particular port authorities what purpose does this have? Seems like a robot that is major labor intensive

Imagine, if you will, 60 or so of these little bots armed with an EFP warhead, launched from a sub aboard a carrier craft. The bots surround a ship through a full 360 degrees and then drive into that boat at or below the waterline. That could have a marked effect on the ship.

Very clever cluster bomblets.
The storage of the things on your submarine and probability of mishaps... The low range thus exposing your submarine. The warhead effects (target splits itself in half on its own weight) design and the evolution of torpedos which work from further and further distances as technology improves fits the bill.
 
Beside particular port authorities what purpose does this have? Seems like a robot that is major labor intensive

Immediate thoughts that pop to mind:
Anchorage security/counter-diver (eats less fish than dolphins, fewer animal rights complaints, much easier to deploy)
Beach recce (surface sampling, seabed profiling)
Surf zone mine recce
Distributed sonar sensors

You also don't need to use the swarming capability, it could be used as a single vehicle, and it's small enough to be deployed via sonobuoy tubes or a sub's signal ejectors, hung off a comparatively small UAV (cf the one P-8 Poseidon was supposed to get for investigating contacts from altitude), or just lobbed over the side or dropped off by a diver.

And of course it's potentially a surrogate for modelling a more capable vehicle in trials and exercises.
 
Bit of movie magic - drone attack on the president. Not a bad movie overall but you'd like to think the secret service are a bit more prepared for this sort of attack than you see here:
 
The movie drones are slightly more capable than the ones (allegedly) used to attack Venezuela's President Maduro in 2018. The kind of strike in the clip is really only open to state actors at present, and there's not really a countermeasure as things currently stand. ECM might downgrade the swarm logic by inhibiting inter-swarm communication, but you'd want to design them with a back-up stand-alone smart missile mode to allow them to attack whatever target of opportunity they find in the target area.

Actual counter-drone technology is pretty limited, mostly we seem to be relying on cooperative drones that will RTB if they fly into restricted airspace (which is just begging someone to reverse engineer that out of the firmware). Hard-kill technology is still mostly at the level of snipers and nets, with the occasional raptor (bird of prey, not F-22), USAr has a handful of Raytheon's Howler, which combine a radar, C2 facility and the Block II Coyote drone as the kill vehicle. Leonardo has a contract for MLIDs, which puts a sensor on one MRAP and a 30mm RWS on another. Sierra Nevada/Ascent have X-MADIS (eXpeditionary Mobile Aerial Defense Integrated System), which is a SUV with radar and EO sensors, but the 'kill' mechanism seems to be a jammer. Most commercial counter-drone systems out there seem to depend on jamming the link between drone and controller, but if you're up against an autonomous drone then there isn't going to be a link to jam. Directed energy weapons, lasers and microwave systems, seem to still be at the real-soon-now stage.
 
for some capability which launches from sub tubes like the Switchblade UAV which has already been done. An UAV must leave no refuse on the surface as the Aerovironment UAV does. These craft would launch in coastal waters and sensors coming on line would find the refuse and by extention the submarine. (bad juju)
Some vehicle which has surface, subsurface and airborne capability and some exotic powersource to afford useful range. USN would need to assume the risk of such a development and industry finally build it.
 
The idea of swarm technology sounds like fun. But there is a great abundance of microwave weapons(like guns) being created. Introduction of EMP emitting missiles. Autonomous features are great if your targets are not mobile so searches might require more distance

But the worst part is how small will you make your drone and depending on that size what kind of range can it cover or what distance must this swarm technology be dispatched at. There is now talks of mobile nuclear generator power plants which can effectively power some power consuming devices that would love to fry electronics. So it depends who will outpace who in development. drones/ counter-done projects have a lot of work to do to be applied correctly.
 
The idea of swarm technology sounds like fun. But there is a great abundance of microwave weapons(like guns) being created. Introduction of EMP emitting missiles.

You can harden against EMP, so it becomes the usual arms race. Most of the existing gun-type designs seem to be directional jammers, rather than EMP-based - because you're not going to want EMPs going off around the media's video cameras (or ATC's computers) at the event (or airport) you're protecting. Which brings up an important issue in drone defence - it's a civilian as well as a military issue and what might be legal and sensible on the battlefield may not be legal or sensible in the middle of a city.
 

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