Published on Jan 9, 2017 by American Military Forum
In one of the most significant tests of autonomous systems under development by the Department of Defense, the Strategic Capabilities Office, partnering with Naval Air Systems Command, successfully demonstrated one of the world’s largest micro-drone swarms at China Lake, California. The test, conducted in October 2016 and documented on Sunday’s CBS News program “60 Minutes”, consisted of 103 Perdix drones launched from three F/A-18 Super Hornets. The micro-drones demonstrated advanced swarm behaviors such as collective decision-making, adaptive formation flying, and self-healing.
“I congratulate the Strategic Capabilities Office for this successful demonstration,” said Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, who created SCO in 2012. “This is the kind of cutting-edge innovation that will keep us a step ahead of our adversaries. This demonstration will advance our development of autonomous systems.”
“Due to the complex nature of combat, Perdix are not pre-programmed synchronized individuals, they are a collective organism, sharing one distributed brain for decision-making and adapting to each other like swarms in nature,” said SCO Director William Roper. “Because every Perdix communicates and collaborates with every other Perdix, the swarm has no leader and can gracefully adapt to drones entering or exiting the team.”
The demonstration is one of the first examples of the Pentagon using teams of small, inexpensive, autonomous systems to perform missions once achieved only by large, expensive ones. Roper stressed the department’s conception of the future battle network is one where humans will always be in the loop. Machines and the autonomous systems being developed by the DoD, such as the micro-drones, will empower humans to make better decisions faster.
——
The American Military Forum is a platform for military and defense industry enthusiasts as well as professionals to discuss security-defense related issues.
Links:
Forum:
http://www.americanmilitaryforum.com/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/americanmili…
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/usmilitaryforum
queue soundtrack flight of the bumblebee.
while no doubt the drone wars will be a part of the dystopian future, i rest peacefully knowing that a simple crow bar will be effective against the swarms.
The “micro” drones described here are a lot bigger than what you’re thinking of. (True bumblebee-sized drones have too many limitations for serious practical use: low battery life, short communication range, limited payload, etc.).
These Perdix drones are intended to be released from a fighter jet. I suspect they’re intended for use in air-to-air combat. Or maybe they can be configured as “smart” cluster bombs.
Whatever the case, they’ll be useless for national security purposes.
I guess the human drones haven’t quite figured out that they are looking at their replacements.
Give them some time…
Eventually they’ll figure out that they’re going to be dumped like yesterday’s piss bottle.
Welcome to our world.
Isn’t technology great…?
We’re. ..really on the edge of the rubicon….or zulu time of humanity. ..involving AI.
Everything that can be automated.
Will be automated.
Without you.
Are you prepared for that….?
Can you call tech support or customer without AI…?
Think about that one.
Slipped it in there nice and slow.
Didn’t they…
birdshot from under an oak tree. its like skeet practice only they make noise.