{"id":35984,"date":"2017-11-22T11:46:05","date_gmt":"2017-11-22T10:46:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/?p=35984"},"modified":"2017-11-22T11:46:05","modified_gmt":"2017-11-22T10:46:05","slug":"swarming-drone-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/2017\/11\/swarming-drone-support\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe\u2019s Militaries to Incorporate Swarming Drone Support"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Three<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Drones are nothing new to warfare.<\/span><\/h3>\n
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UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) have been in operation during the last few wars including the <\/span><\/span>aptly<\/span><\/span> named Predator Drone <\/strong><\/span><\/span>. This was especially in post 9\/11 operations. <\/span>Initially<\/span><\/span> used for surveillance<\/span><\/span>, it did not take long for nations to start fixing missiles to them<\/strong><\/span><\/span>.<\/strong> This allowed them to act almost <\/span>autonomously<\/span><\/span>, sometimes to devastating effect. In November 2008 a drone <\/span>struck a wedding party<\/span><\/a> with a missile and killed 37 civilians. Twenty three of whom were children.<\/span><\/div>\n
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These incidents have put a bit of a dark shadow over drone use but they display huge benefits. <\/span>Even ISIS fighters have recently been using recreational drones<\/strong> to attack US troops near Raqqa<\/span><\/span>. <\/span>They attach small 40mm grenade-sized munitions to the drone and <\/span><\/span>fly<\/span><\/span> it near troops or emplacements, before detonating the explosive<\/span><\/span>. Though rudimentary, it does give an <\/span>indication<\/span><\/span> for the future of warfare.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

New flying techniques<\/h3>\n
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Recent developments, <\/span>however<\/span><\/span>, are set to see this ramped up to a far more modern and efficient level. <\/span>The United States\u2019 DARPA<\/strong> (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) has been consulting robotics engineers, artificial intelligence programmers and computer scientists<\/span><\/span>. They seek to create swarms of drones<\/strong> to support infantry personnel in the field. A far cry from strapping a grenade to a commercial drone purchased off Amazon. <\/span>These drones will <\/span><\/span>be designed by<\/span><\/span> some of the world\u2019s largest and wealthiest military interests<\/span><\/span>. <\/span>Though it is an American-led programme, many European nations have also displayed very strong interest in this area<\/strong><\/span><\/span>. The United Kingdom and France are among the most interested. Both have lots of recent experience in using drones in a limited capacity on the battlefield.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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DARPA has asked these experts for specific ideas for drones, tactics and technologies<\/strong> that could allow for swarms of up to 250+ drones<\/span><\/span>. <\/span>They would support infantry units in built-up areas over long periods of time, being able to operate for at least 6 hours<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Technical drawbacks<\/h3>\n
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Their chief problem at present isn\u2019t building the actual drones. <\/span>Wealthy nations like the USA, the UK, and France are quite capable of buying large numbers of drones<\/strong> and giving them out to their troops<\/span><\/span>. The issue is finding a way to both control and manage<\/strong> such large numbers of drones on the battlefield. <\/span>At present US Marines use remote controlled drones for recon purposes in battle, but they must be <\/span><\/span>directly<\/span><\/span> controlled by an operator<\/span><\/span>. <\/span>Having a large number of autonomous drones at any one time whilst undertaking their tasks <\/span><\/span>automatically<\/span><\/span> without crashing into each other<\/strong> is another matter <\/span><\/span>entirely<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Artificial Swarm Intelligence<\/h3>\n
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\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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This is the realm of the fledgling field of Artificial Swarm Intelligence.<\/strong> This field of computer science uses nature as one of its chief inspirations. The study of Ants, Bees, Fish and Locusts<\/strong> \u2013 nature\u2019s great swarmers \u2013 are their chief inspiration. Researchers in this field seek to bring to life the old adage that the whole is more than the sum of its parts.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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DARPA wants to create an \u2018advanced human-swarm interface\u2019<\/strong>. <\/span>They want the swarm systems to perform \u2018in an agile way, so future operators will have the tools they need to outsmart and outperform urban adversaries<\/strong>\u2019<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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It’s a large, well-funded move into a robotic warfare direction. And it’s still breaking new ground<\/strong>. In the very near future we will see more robotic soldiers on the frontline than organic ones. <\/span>It’s only a matter of time until these technologies and tactics trickle down to less organised, less wealthy or less advanced militaries<\/span><\/span>. <\/span>We can almost guarantee that our adversaries both domestic and international will soon be using similar methods<\/strong><\/span><\/span>. This will lead to large drone on drone battles which will <\/span>surely<\/span><\/span> be a thing to behold. <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Fighting drones<\/h3>\n
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Even before this stage, though, anti-drone technology has been advancing <\/span><\/span>just<\/span><\/span> as fast as drone technology itself<\/span><\/span>. Fences, flying nets, explosives, you name it. <\/span>Yet, France had one of the more outside-the-box ideas<\/strong> which against all expectations has actually worked<\/span><\/span>. <\/span>French Police, fearing that ISIS would copy their 40mm drone attacks within France itself to commit terror attacks, have actually trained <\/strong><\/span>eagles to attack drones in the air<\/strong><\/span>. Eagles<\/em>. And it works. <\/span>The <\/span><\/span>French Air Force has also copied this method<\/span><\/a> for protecting the air space over their bases from prying civilian drones <\/span><\/span>. One thing is for certain \u2013 war is about to get very, very weird.<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Whatever the trials and drawbacks, this move towards drone-enhanced soldiers is a big step in a futuristic direction<\/span><\/span>. <\/span>Hopefully<\/span><\/strong> it will reduce the casualties<\/strong> caused as a result of wars and counter-insurgencies<\/span><\/span>. And <\/span>maybe<\/span><\/span> help to combat the spate of terror attacks which have long plagued the continent. <\/span>We should soon see French troops flanked by dozens, if not hundreds, of advanced drones acting of their own accord to allow soldiers to control the area<\/strong><\/span><\/span>. <\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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If we can get them to stop crashing into each other.<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Drones are nothing new to warfare. UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) have been in operation during the last few wars including the aptly named Predator Drone . This was especially in post 9\/11 operations. Initially used for surveillance, it did not take long for nations to start fixing missiles to them. This allowed them to act<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":35986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10564],"tags":[5591,989],"class_list":["post-35984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tech-2","tag-drone","tag-drones"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}