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Defeating Swarm Of Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems With AI
by C. Todd Lopez, DOD News
February 4, 2021
Defeating a swarm of small unmanned aircraft systems may one day
require faster decision making than what a single human being can
provide, and may mean the use of artificial intelligence to make
those decisions.
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The 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment and the Threat Systems Management Office push a swarm of 40 drones through the town during the battle of Razish, National Training Center on May 8, 2019. This exercise was the first of many held at the National Training Center. (Image
created by USA Patriotism! from U.S. Army Photo by Pv2 James Newsome.)
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"Right now we don't have the authority to have a human out of the
loop," Col. Marc E. Pelini, the division chief for capabilities and
requirements within the Joint Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems
Office, said during a teleconference. "Based on the existing
Department of Defense policy, you have to have a human within the
decision cycle at some point to authorize the engagement."
But given the threat of UAS swarms, Pelini said he knows there is
talk about developing artificial intelligence capabilities to enable
"in-the-loop" or "out-of-the-loop" human decision-making.
"When you're starting to see swarming activities of hundreds or
potentially thousands [of UAS] in the future, obviously you want
your system to operate as fast [as possible] to provide those
weaponeering solutions to the operator, or operate within a set of
parameters," Pelini said. "But that's really kind of defined right
now in the policy realm."
In January, the Defense Department
published the Counter-Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Strategy to
provide a framework for addressing small UAS hazards and threats in
the U.S., host nations and contingency locations.
One aspect
of the department's strategy will be the development of a Joint
Counter UAS Center of Excellence, which Army Maj. Gen. Sean A.
Gainey, the director of the Joint Counter-Small Unmanned Aircraft
Systems Office, said is being developed now under the guidance of
the Fires Center of Excellence. A Joint Counter UAS academy is also
expected to be developed to train service members and leaders on how
to fight the threat posed by UAS.
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A Marine assigned to Special Purpose Marine-Air Ground Task Force - Crisis Response - Central Command, operates a Drone Buster during counter unmanned aircraft systems training at the Baghdad Embassy Compound in Iraq on October 9, 2020. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Gunnery Sgt. Artur Shvartsberg)
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"The intent of the academy is to ... not only provide the
opportunity for training, but to start training leaders on
counter-UAS and have the basic understandings and ... go from basic
to advanced understanding of the threat and then how to employ these
capabilities," Gainey said.
The concept of the schoolhouse is
likely to involve both resident and non-resident training
opportunities for a variety of students, Pelini said.
"Your
non-resident personnel would really kind of be the operators that
are operating a specific piece of equipment ... that would be taught
utilizing a joint common core," Pelini said.
With in-resident
students, he said, the school would strive to accomplish two things.
"The first one is training experts ... so kind of building
those, for lack of a better term, master gunners on the Army side,
that would help the commanders develop and evaluate and implement
the counter-UAS training plan for the particular unit," Pelini said.
"The other piece of the puzzle of the resident course is developing
the joint architecture and joint systems experts ... understanding
how systems interact with each other, getting more to the technical
granularity, and understanding electronic warfare fratricide, radar
fratricide, etc."
Pelini said in-resident students would be
developed into subject matter experts to serve at battalion, brigade
or higher commands to allow leadership to make optimal use of
counter-UAS systems.
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