[Global Times Special Correspondent Chen Yang] Both sides of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict used those unadvanced drones but achieved brilliant results, which surprised the US military, which was used to pursuing advanced weapon performance.

[Global Times Special Correspondent Chen Yang] Both sides of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict used those unadvanced drones but achieved brilliant results, which surprised the US military, which was used to pursuing advanced weapon performance. The American "Fun Project" website said on the 25th that the "MIT Technology Review" magazine found that the Pentagon quietly added a huge "super bee swarm" project to the new fiscal year budget report. With the help of algorithms such as artificial intelligence , thousands of cheap drones are "omnipotent on the battlefield."

The Pentagon has planned different "bee swarm" drone projects.

The Pentagon has planned different "bee swarm" drone projects.

"Scale is far beyond any previous time"

Although the US military has rich R&D and usage experience in the field of drones, it pays more attention to the development of advanced models to meet future challenges. For example, the US Defense News said on the 25th that due to the worrying survival of the MQ-9 "Death" drone in service in front of advanced opponents, the US Air Force plans to retire most of it by 2027 and switch to more advanced models. The RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned reconnaissance aircraft is also facing a similar situation, and the US military will replace its position with the more advanced and more expensive RQ-180 stealth drone.

But the MIT Technology Review said that the Russian-Ukrainian conflict proves a new way for drones to cope with future challenges. According to reports, during the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, low-cost small drones, including consumer-grade quadrotor drones, reflect their own value. They widely perform various tasks such as reconnaissance, guiding artillery to shoot, and even destroying tank . But these drones are greatly restricted in their use, because each drone requires a separate operator. Among the "swarm" drones that the US military is advancing, hundreds of drones are controlled as one unit. "This kind of drone swarm can be used in almost any battlefield mission," said George Mason University researcher Zachary Karenborn.

reported that an ambitious, previously undisclosed "super swarm" unmanned combat plan is hidden in the hundreds of pages of the Pentagon's budget file, consisting of multiple projects aimed at overcoming the technical difficulties of "swarm" drone "its scale is far more than ever."

More than one project targets different technical difficulties

"MIT Technology Review" states that the public may already be familiar with the huge drone light show, with hundreds or thousands of drones flying together with perfect synchronization. But they are not the "swarm" drones that the U.S. military pursues, because each drone in the former is just flying along a pre-designed route. In contrast, while flying together, the "swarm" drones need to sense their surroundings, understand how far they are from each other, and use algorithms to avoid obstacles. More advanced versions also use artificial intelligence to coordinate tasks, such as expanding searches or performing synchronous attacks. According to reports, the U.S. Navy has made considerable progress in this regard. In 2017, the U.S. Navy successfully coordinated 30 "swarm" drones to carry out joint operations, including carrying explosive warheads to carry out suicide attacks. Today, in the U.S. "Super Swarm" unmanned combat program, a research project called "Low Cost UAV Cluster Technology " aims to launch drone swarms from surface ships , submarine , aircraft and ground vehicles, and is equipped with a variety of payloads: sensors for reconnaissance missions, jammers for electronic suppression missions or other electronic warfare equipment, and carry ammunition to perform attack missions.

Due to the common problems of small size and insufficient range of "swarm" drones, the US military's "Deployment and Use of Autonomous Remote Systems" project attempts to overcome this challenge. The project plans to use large drones as "aircraft carriers." Although the U.S. military has previously tested using larger drones to carry and launch one or two small drones from the air, the new project aims to transport and launch "extremely large numbers" of small drones without human intervention. Another problem faced by

"swarm" drones is "cost". Because it is often used as a consumable, it needs to be cheap enough to be deployed in large quantities.The current cheapest "backpack portable drone system" in the US military is priced at US$49,000, which is still too expensive. The "Massive Manufacturing Independent System" project planned by the US military will use 3D printing and digital design tools to manufacture low-cost drones in large quantities, with the goal of having a design prototype that can be modified at will and can be optimized for different purposes. According to the budget documents, the project aims to produce tens of thousands of drones and “made as far as possible”, meaning small drones can be produced on naval ship near the frontline.

"Super Swarm" program also includes more complex command and control systems designed to make it easier for humans to cooperate with "swarm" drones and give "swarm" drones more autonomy. If communication interference or bandwidth limitations are encountered during the mission, and decision-making instructions cannot be obtained from human operators, the "swarm" drone will gain the ability to operate independently. It will make redecisions based on the collected information, such as when new threats are discovered, it can change routes or send drones to identify them. But the report acknowledged that "this will be a considerable challenge for artificial intelligence technology." Karenborn described it as "thousands of autonomous drones, meaning thousands of nodes that may cause errors. Modeling and simulation technology can help reduce the possibility of errors, but it will be very difficult to rely on artificial intelligence to solve countless complexities in the real world."

Although faced with many difficulties, if these sub-projects involved in "super swarms" can be successful, the US military will gain unprecedented capabilities: launch thousands of "swarm swarms" drones for long-range flights, conduct detailed reconnaissance of large-scale targets, and identify and attack targets. Budget documents show that these "swarm" drones are also seen as one of the main solutions to the "anti-intervention/regional denial" strategy, the latter of which is the most troublesome problem for the U.S. military at the moment. "The 'Swarm' drones can break through the strongest defenses in existence; even if the opponent's air defense system can shoot down dozens or hundreds of drones, there are still thousands of drones that can break through the defense line regardless of losses. They are enough to destroy air defense radars and other defense systems and pave the way for attacks of cruise missiles , manned fighter jets and other traditional weapons."

adversarial equipment is also under development

US drone combat expert Peter Singer said that from the perspective of existing technology, drones have developed from operating alone to "hunting" as a group at the same time. This group coordination ability is not a fantasy. "In many ways, this idea is no more daunting than having the aircraft take off from the carrier or coordinating the flight of hundreds of manned aircraft." He said the "swarm" drone can also undertake a variety of other tasks, from reconnaissance, intelligence gathering to electronic warfare and supply missions, and can operate with the manned system.

But Peter Singer stressed that the "super swarm" program may not necessarily become a "war winner" because military researchers from various countries are already studying ways to deal with "swarm" drones. "Every weapon must have a restraining method, the problem is just how reliable and effective the latter is."

Peter Singer said that the methods currently envisioned by the outside world to fight against "swarm drones include lasers, microwave weapons or large-scale electronic interference, and other similar equipment is also being developed. But he believes that the arrival of the "super swarm" drone era is inevitable. "The idea of ​​not be swarming drones on the battlefield in the future is as stupid as those who once thought submarines, tanks or aircraft were just science fiction."