Drone Swarm

[varmint]

First-Ever Drone Swarm Attack Has Struck Russian Military Bases, Sources Claim

http://www.sciencealert.com/swarm-home-made-drones-strike-military-base-first-attack-kind-russia-uavs



Will we look back at this as a milestone moment?

[Seahawk]

Not really.

These drones were not "swarming" in the sense that they were coordinating with each other without operator input.

The real wave is AI and drones, learning and adapting. The problem is, however, that small drones have shot endurance and payload, meaning that they will not be a player in distance fighting for a bit.

My company is working to solve that problem. This is Dash X:



We are teamed with NGC in making Dash X an electronic warfare UAS. Dash X is folded inside an bomb shape and is taken to the firght on the wing of an F-18 at 450 knots. An F-18 can carry 6 to 8 of them.

Once at the release point, the cannister is released, a parachute is deployed and Dash X unfolds and goes flying...swarms if NGC gets it right.

Not a paper airplane. It flies. Stores and separation testing this year. Long way to go but enjoyable.

[varmint]

Are the targeting heat signatures? Electronic emissions? Or can they go by shape?




Is there any good site keeping track of these things?

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by varmint

Are the targeting heat signatures? Electronic emissions? Or can they go by shape?

Lots of things.

Electronic warfare covers the spectrum from jamming, decoys, malicious codes, cyber warfare, etc.

The key is, in denied environments, to get the drone there. That is where we come in.

NGC calls our up close and personal capability, since manned jammers need an inordinate amount of energy to jam at distance to survive, "whisper rather than shout".

Dash X can do it's thing from low altitude, near the threat all while flying below the Doppler Notch (approximately 60KTs). They are controlled by the F-18, which we have demonstrated.

Fun stuff.

The current wave of advanced technologies is counter UAS systems.

[kach22i]

Which side are the Iranian's on in the Syrian conflict?

This just smells of them.

EDIT: Iran should be on Russia's side supporting the government.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_involvement_in_the_Syrian_Civil_War

Could Iran and Russia be squaring off now that ISIS has crumbled?

Two former allies attacking each other for dominance?

December 2, 2017
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Analysis-Airstrike-on-Iranian-base-in-Syria-raises-questions-515798

On November 10 the BBC released a report that Iran was “building permanent military base in Syria.” The report had three satellite images with it – from January, May and October – showing a site near El-Kiswah, south of Damascus. It was about 50 km. from Israeli forces on the Golan Heights. The changes at the site showed new buildings and the BBC ascribed the information to a “western intelligence source.”.........................

On November 12, two days after the revelations of the Iranian base at El-Kiswah, a US State Department official indicated to Israeli media that the cease-fire memorandum would include the removal of Iranian forces from areas near the Golan. Three days later, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the agreement did not indicate that Iranian- backed forces would be withdrawn.

[rcooled]

Originally Posted by varmint

Will we look back at this as a milestone moment?

Could very well be...

[astrochex]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

Fun stuff.

Are you providing platform expertise, EW expertise, integration expertise?

[Seahawk]

Platform only. NGC is the sensor developer and integration house.

We do make sure the flight avionics match their needs.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Paul is a real authority on this topic. I was involved with several other similar USAF funded programs that had a similar theme. LCASD is a larger, reusable UAV with modular strike capability that is designed to be low cost and essentially "disposable". Grey Wolf is a low cost cruise missile that is designed to be a swarming weapon. Both are still in development, but the swarming concept is very real for our military as well.

[GH85Carrera]

There is no doubt that anti-drone, or anti-UAV to be more accurate, technology is going to be an important part of the near future. There was an interesting show on TV recently about DARPA and a competition of several companies competing to defeat one singe standard off the shelf drone. They did it at a government range and had to get the FCC to allow them to use different jamming broadcasts or other ways to stop just the lone drone. It was eye opening on how many failed at the task. Imagine a dozen bad guys with a weaponized UAV heading towards a large group. Stopping just one is almost impossible, how do they stop a dozen?

Of course our military will want UAVs hardened to prevent the enemy from stopping them. It will be an interesting thing to watch. Paul, I guess you are in the middle of it all. That is cool.

[sammyg2]

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

There is no doubt that anti-drone, or anti-UAV to be more accurate, technology is going to be an important part of the near future. There was an interesting show on TV recently about DARPA and a competition of several companies competing to defeat one singe standard off the shelf drone. They did it at a government range and had to get the FCC to allow them to use different jamming broadcasts or other ways to stop just the lone drone. It was eye opening on how many failed at the task. Imagine a dozen bad guys with a weaponized UAV heading towards a large group. Stopping just one is almost impossible, how do they stop a dozen?

Of course our military will want UAVs hardened to prevent the enemy from stopping them. It will be an interesting thing to watch. Paul, I guess you are in the middle of it all. That is cool.

I worked with DARPA on some anti-UAS efforts. It was scary how little the "experts" knew about what is going on in the commercial world.

I told the tech lead about a UAS that transitions from underwater to flight - he didn't believe me until I showed him the video from the interwebs.

Amazing stuff out there.

[stealthn]

They make pulse rifles to “shoot down” drones now.

[GH85Carrera]

As you well know the biggest challenge will be payload and the power source.

UAVs are so much the "cool new technology" and in demand. We keep getting projects from UAV based companies that realize to fly the project will take hundreds of UAVs and dozens of employees and weeks of time. We can do it for them in a few hours with our ultimate drone, a Cessna 172 with a human pilot. Flying for many hours we can go hundreds of miles to the remote site, shoot it and be home in a day and even fly sites like an Air Force base or in Class B airspace.

We will need to hire some commercial pilots soon.

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

As you well know the biggest challenge will be payload and the power source.

UAVs are so much the "cool new technology" and in demand. We keep getting projects from UAV based companies that realize to fly the project will take hundreds of UAVs and dozens of employees and weeks of time. We can do it for them in a few hours with our ultimate drone, a Cessna 172 with a human pilot. Flying for many hours we can go hundreds of miles to the remote site, shoot it and be home in a day and even fly sites like an Air Force base or in Class B airspace.

We will need to hire some commercial pilots soon.

You are right on the money. As you know I worked in the commercial UAS space (sold the company).

The FAA will eventually come to grips with UAS in the airspace but that is an unknown.

Concerning "pulse guns" you are correct - they work really well against unhardened, small UAS. A hardened UAS doesn't care. It is the next wave in UAS technology, however.

What really scares the military are the foam RC jets that can fly at speeds over 200mph. Cut the engine a mile out from the target, you won't see or hear then.

https://www.amazon.com/FlyZone-Albatros-Receiver-Electric-Control/dp/B0015H2WSA?SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&tag=duckduckgo-ffsb-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B0015H2WSA

[astrochex]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

Platform only. NGC is the sensor developer and integration house.

We do make sure the flight avionics match their needs.

ok cool. I’ll have to look up the project when I get back to the office.

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by astrochex

ok cool. I’ll have to look up the project when I get back to the office.

The NGC group is Mission Systems out of Baltimore and Colorado: the electronic warfare package was called Remedy by NGC.

We have been amazed how good of a partner they have been.

http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2017/12/7/northrop-grumman-reveals-canister-deployed-uav-concept-for-maritime-surveillance

[wdfifteen]

Michael Crichton published a book Prey in 2002 that foretold tiny drone swarms with group intelligence.