The Pentagon’s chief research agency envisions a day when infantry units can rely upon swarms of small, unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to serve as their eyes, and perhaps deliver ordnance upon enemies.
In the meantime, the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA) is moving to bring that moment closer to fruition. The agency recently announced that it is seeking contributors from academia and industry to offer their input to its Offensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics (OFFSET) program, which ultimately could lead to placing at least 250 small UAS drones into the hands of soldiers and Marines.
In particular, DARPA wants help in five areas: swarm tactics, swarm autonomy, human-swarm teams, virtual environment, and the virtual test bed.
This second so-called “swarm sprint” would entail operations of 50 air and ground robots, which would deploy for 15 to 30 minutes in urban testing scenarios.
Participants include Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Laboratories, SoarTech Inc., Charles River Analytics, Inc., the University of Maryland, and Carnegie-Mellon University.