US Department of Defense Strategic Capabilities Office in conjunction with the command aviation systems naval forces conducted tests of miniature unmanned aerial vehicles. Microdrones called Perdix should improve the chances of successful reconnaissance, but this is not their only purpose.
It is planned that “flocks” of UAVs (for which, by the way, it was developed to control) will be able not only to destabilize its missile defense and air defense systems, as well as accompany aircraft or be used as bait.
The advantage of small robotic scouts is undeniable. Existing systems air defense will not be able to withstand groups of several hundred drones: it is assumed that at least several devices will in any case reach the target and be able to transmit the collected data to the operator.
During the first tests, which took place in October 2016 over test site China Lake, California, three F/A-18 Super Hornets launched 103 Perdix drones into a swarm. The military tested the ability of aircraft to independently “choose a leader,” as well as distribute roles among themselves and replace “colleagues” in the event of losses.
According to the US Department of Defense, all tests were successfully completed by the devices. “The microdrones demonstrated “advanced” patterns of swarm behavior, such as collective decision-making, adaptive formation in the air and “self-healing,” the Pentagon said in a press release. The department publicly announced the success only now, apparently for security reasons.
Perdix drones are known to be disposable and relatively inexpensive. They are equipped with radio transmitters, receivers and cameras. The devices are designed in such a way that fighters can launch them from standard automatic decoy guns. Once launched, the drones fly low over the target and then transmit intelligence data to the aircraft. The entire flock is controlled by an operator who can also coordinate the actions of individual segments.
The drones have folding front and rear wings. The mass of one microscout is no more than 300 grams, and the size, taking into account the wingspan, is 16 centimeters. To reduce the cost of construction, the cases are made of plastic - they are printed on a 3D printer. A small electric motor with a pushing propeller is responsible for the movement of the drone. Other details are still classified.
Now the Pentagon is selecting companies that could engage in large-scale serial production of microdrones.
We also add that Perdix UAVs were initially developed by students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and were subsequently refined together with representatives of the Pentagon. Since 2013, devices have been constantly improved and updated. Representatives of the sixth generation of these devices took part in the current tests.
By the way, we previously told you that American engineers developed . Also, armies of drones are widely used for peaceful purposes: for example, for or.
The US Department of Defense is testing a swarm of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) designed for electronic and fire suppression of enemy air defense systems and attacks on positional areas of offensive weapons probable enemy. The head of what was once one of the most secret divisions of the Pentagon - the Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO) - William Roper said this during a report to US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, writes the military-analytical publication The National Interest.
According to Roper, the implementation of this program will give the US armed forces unprecedented advantages in modern warfare. Mini-drones are designed and built on standard elements already developed by American industry, the Pentagon official emphasized.
Promising unmanned aircraft has already received the name Perdix (Latin for “partridge”), which is dissonant to the Russian ear.
“They are single-use, fly at extremely low altitudes and can also be used as a reconnaissance weapon. You can have many of these mini-drones, and only as many as you need to complete the combat mission in a given case. A large number of UAVs creates considerable advantages over the enemy. He will be forced to invest much more in his defense more funds and time to reliably protect yourself from such swarms,” Roper explained.
Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post Project Perdix drone, named after the ancient Greek heroine Perdika
However, in his public statements, he never named any specific technologies used in the creation and operation of new drones.
The only thing William Roper clarified: small drones can be easily launched from a carrier aircraft.
Such machines can be located in some kind of cassette on board a fighter or bomber and sent by the pilot to carry out a combat mission with the press of a button. In numerous tests, F-16 and F/A-18 aircraft are used as swarm carriers.
“Although mini-drones do have advantages in terms of combat use, according to the “efficiency - cost” criterion, in comparison with many other types of weapons and military equipment“Small drones still have a very limited range,” says William Roper.
According to him, the external contours of the Perdix drone are created using 3D printing to ensure fast production and lower device prices.
According to the authors of this idea, small-sized drones should fly up to their targets with the minimum possible intervals and distances between each other. One of the main problems with this is the collision of drones with each other. For safe autonomous flight, special computer algorithms are used. In this regard, the developers, in their own words, have made significant progress.
There are also serious limitations in the use of mini-drones, the authors of the program believe.
The US military is not yet able to design such vehicles that could return to the carrier aircraft from which they were launched.
American developers are now studying preliminary test results. If necessary, the necessary changes and additions will be made to the program.
The unmanned aerial vehicle mentioned by Pentagon officials is just one of many systems being developed for “swarm use,” a Russian expert in the field of unmanned systems explained to Gazeta.Ru. Chief Editor magazine "Unmanned Aviation" Denis Fedutinov. “In the USA, several interested structures have organized work in this area. Examples include the LOCUST program of the Office of Naval Research (ONR), as well as the DARPA Gremlins project,” says Fedutinov.
It is assumed that the drones will operate against an enemy equipped modern systems Air defense. It will be overcome through the simultaneous use of many drones.
To do this, unmanned vehicles must be able to interact with each other, forming an information network. This property should ensure the redistribution of combat missions in a changing situation, including in the event of some of the drones being disabled. Such UAVs, designed to withstand high losses, must be relatively cheap and consist of the most available components.
“I think promising unmanned swarms can be formed from UAVs different types, says Fedutinov. “Potentially, multicopters that are currently widespread could also be used here.”
According to the expert, there have also been some projects in Russia aimed at developing swarm technologies in relation to UAVs. However, this topic has not yet been seriously addressed in our country. To actually implement such ideas, serious government investment is needed, the expert explains. First of all, in the development of the necessary swarm algorithms. The cost of this work may exceed the cost of creating the hardware, Fedutinov emphasizes.
The US Office of Strategic Capabilities, which operates closely with the defense industry, was created to speed up the long, expensive and bureaucratic process of adopting a particular type of weapon. Management must integrate science and military industry. “Often people who have never met before are natural partners in creating promising weapons. We must use this situation for constructive purposes,” William Roper, head of the US Strategic Capabilities Office, explained his tasks to reporters.
“We want to give commanders undeniable advantages during combat operations over the enemy. We take risky concepts and bring the result of the work to a state where it can be used in combat,” the Pentagon official emphasizes.
Such American developments should be regarded as a serious threat, says Konstantin Makienko, deputy director of the Center for Strategies and Technologies. “And this, without any exaggeration, revolution in military affairs can happen quite quickly and suddenly,” says Makienko. - Fight against similar packs small drones It will be very difficult physically. No mirror counteraction is suitable here. In my opinion, only the use of radio-electronic weapons that destroy intellectual connections in such a swarm will be effective.”
The United States tested a swarm of attack mini-drones to suppress air defense or offensive weapons. The 3D-printed devices can be launched towards the enemy from a fighter or bomber. It will be very difficult to fight such weapons with conventional air defense systems; modern radio-electronic weapons are needed against such systems, say experts interviewed by Gazeta.Ru.
The US Department of Defense is testing a swarm of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) designed for electronic and fire suppression of enemy air defense (air defense) systems and attacks on positional areas of the offensive weapons of a potential enemy. The head of what was once one of the most secret divisions of the Pentagon - the Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO) - William Roper spoke about this during a report to US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, writes a military analytical publication.
According to Roper, the implementation of this program will give the US armed forces unprecedented advantages in modern warfare. Mini-drones are designed and built on standard elements already developed by American industry, the Pentagon official emphasized.
The promising unmanned aerial vehicle has already received the name Perdix (Latin for “partridge”), which sounds dissonant to the Russian ear.
“They are single-use, fly at extremely low altitudes and can also be used as a reconnaissance weapon. You can have many of these mini-drones, and only as many as you need to complete the combat mission in a given case. A large number of UAVs creates considerable advantages over the enemy. He will be forced to invest much more money and time into his defense in order to reliably protect himself from such swarms,” Roper explained.
Drone of the Perdix project, named after the ancient Greek heroine Perdika
However, in his public statements, he never named any specific technologies used in the creation and operation of new drones.
The only thing that William Roper clarified is that small-sized drones can be easily launched from a carrier aircraft.
Such machines can be located in some kind of cassette on board a fighter or bomber and sent by the pilot to carry out a combat mission with the press of a button. In numerous tests, F-16 and F/A-18 aircraft are used as swarm carriers.
“Although mini-drones do have advantages in terms of combat use, according to the cost-effectiveness criterion, in comparison with many other types of weapons and military equipment, small drones still have a very limited range,” says William Roper.
According to him, the external contours of the Perdix drone are created using 3D printing to ensure rapid production and lower prices for the devices.
According to the authors of this idea, small-sized drones should fly up to their targets with the minimum possible intervals and distances between each other. One of the main problems with this is the collision of drones with each other. For safe autonomous flight, special computer algorithms are used. In this regard, the developers, in their own words, have made significant progress.
There are also serious limitations in the use of mini-drones, the authors of the program believe.
The US military is not yet able to design such vehicles that could return to the carrier aircraft from which they were launched.
American developers are now studying preliminary test results. If necessary, the necessary changes and additions will be made to the program.
The unmanned aerial vehicle mentioned by Pentagon officials is just one of many systems being developed for “swarm use,” Denis Fedutinov, a Russian expert in the field of unmanned systems and editor-in-chief of the Unmanned Aviation magazine, explained to Gazeta.Ru. “In the USA, several interested structures have organized work in this area. Examples include the LOCUST program of the Office of Naval Research (ONR), as well as the DARPA Gremlins project,” says Fedutinov.
It is assumed that the drones will operate against an enemy equipped with modern air defense systems. It will be overcome through the simultaneous use of many drones.
To do this, unmanned vehicles must be able to interact with each other, forming an information network. This property should ensure the redistribution of combat missions in a changing situation, including in the event of some of the drones being disabled. Such UAVs, designed to withstand high losses, must be relatively cheap and consist of the most available components.
According to the expert, there have also been some projects in Russia aimed at developing swarm technologies in relation to UAVs. However, this topic has not yet been seriously addressed in our country. To actually implement such ideas, serious government investment is needed, the expert explains. First of all, in the development of the necessary flock algorithms. The cost of this work may exceed the cost of creating the hardware, Fedutinov emphasizes.
The US Office of Strategic Capabilities, which operates closely with the defense industry, was created to speed up the long, expensive and bureaucratic process of adopting a particular type of weapon. Management must integrate science and military industry. “Often people who have never met before are natural partners in creating promising weapons. We must use this situation for constructive purposes,” William Roper, head of the US Strategic Capabilities Directorate, explained his tasks to reporters.
“We want to give commanders undeniable advantages during combat operations over the enemy. We take risky concepts and bring the result of the work to a state where it can be used in combat,” the Pentagon official emphasizes.
Such American developments should be regarded as a serious threat, says Konstantin Makienko, deputy director of the Center for Strategies and Technologies. “And this, without any exaggeration, revolution in military affairs can happen quite quickly and suddenly,” says Makienko. “It will be very physically difficult to fight such swarms of small drones. No mirror counteraction is suitable here. In my opinion, only the use of radio-electronic weapons that destroy intellectual connections in such a swarm will be effective.”
Today, you won’t surprise anyone with devices such as drones and microdrones. They have gained great popularity, for example, Perdix Drone is one of the latest developments of microdrones, the development and testing of this device is being monitored great attention and is of interest not only to ordinary fans of aviation toys, but also to government services in many countries.
This aircraft was created by scientists from the American Institute of Technology for security services and military intelligence operations. First of all, this drone is intended for conducting observations and recording the coordinates of the object being monitored.
The uniqueness of this model is that the Perdix AI drone is equipped artificial intelligence, which allows you to independently coordinate your movement in a flock of other objects. In other words, these devices can fly in a so-called swarm, and among large quantity of such aircraft, each of them will maintain a given distance and fly unhindered by other objects. These machines are capable of not only flying in a large group, but at the same time choosing a leader, i.e. the leader of the swarm, and replacing each other’s positions in case of losses.
The developers claim that this device can be launched in large numbers from fighters, this will allow them to disperse and remain invisible to the enemy. This device belongs to the category of unmanned mini reconnaissance aircraft.
Its cost is quite low. Manufacturers indicated that a 3D printer is used to manufacture the main elements and fuselage. This fact gives every reason to believe that mass release this device is possible for quite short term and with minimal financial costs. US government services do not finally disclose all the data that this unmanned aerial vehicle possesses, but it is known that today there are already 4 versions of the Perdix micro UAV and they are being used perfectly in their work.
Of course it's specifications and the possibilities arouse great interest from others, because such a swarm of locust robots can be used for various purposes, including not always peaceful ones.
Main characteristics of the Perdix drone
The first thing I want to say is that this device is actually extremely simple. It is a model for one-time use, i.e., after completing the work assigned to it and completing 1 flight, it is unsuitable for further use.
Basic energetic force This mini airplane is brushless type motor and propeller. Thanks to this motor, the drone can accelerate its speed to 110 km/h, but its flight duration is no more than 20 minutes.
The Perdix drone has the following technical data:
- Its weight is 290 g.
- Length - 11.5 cm.
- Height - 6 cm.
- The flight range is 15 km.
- Maximum speed -110 km/h.
- Cruising speed - 80 km/h.
- Maximum flight altitude is 2110 m.
- The drones are equipped with folding front and rear wings. The total wingspan is 0.3 m.
The rest of the technical data of Perdix Swarm Demo is unknown; classified data is not disclosed by US government agencies. The tests carried out with this drone in 2016 received wide publicity; representatives of the American military services officially announced their results.
First of all, they conducted a report on the work done by scientists: a big problem in the development of this robot was ensuring that the distance between objects was maintained during the flight, but according to the committee, this problem was solved quite well. The development of this strategic object is currently being carried out secret services Pentagon.
Combat swarm test results
Roy microdrones Perdix of 103 vehicles was launched in 2016 by the US Department of Defense and Navy from 3 F/A-18 Super Hornet carrier aircraft.
The main task that was set before testing unmanned vehicles, was the implementation of a joint flight of more than 100 microdrones. At the same time, they had to keep a distance from each other, follow the leader and replace each other during the flight. In other words, they must make a general change of positions for full-scale observation.
Shearwater Perdix, this is exactly what the name of this device sounds like, translated into Russian means “partridge”. Combat drones are the size of a human palm, a large swarm of these mini-robots looks more like a swarm of locusts.
Their task is to suppress and overload the enemy’s air defense with the help of their large numbers and false signals. The report stated as an example that the air defense of the Russian military services can simultaneously track no more than 80 aircraft.
As representatives of the Pentagon services stated, the testing was successful, and Perdix AI fully coped with the assigned tasks.
An interesting fact remains that the flight range of this device is 15 km, and the instrumental air defense range is 400 km. Thus, it turns out that carrier aircraft will have to enter the coverage area of air defense installations. In fact, there are still a lot of questions regarding technical capabilities Perdix AI, but unfortunately, more detailed data about the microdrone is classified.
The American army is developing in principle the new kind armed forces- squads of unmanned vehicles with swarm intelligence. In October 2016 there were successful tests the world's largest swarm of microdrones, consisting of 103 Perdix devices, said on the website of the US Department of Defense.
Swarm intelligence involves the coordinated actions of a large number of agents (boids) that locally interact with themselves and environment. Although each boid follows simple basic rules, but collectively the swarm intelligence system exhibits exceptionally complex cooperative behavior. It actually acts like one big organism.
For example, in the final episode of the last season of Black Mirror, they demonstrated a typical swarm intelligence system of robotic bees, which had to replace the extinct population of living bees. So, having received a simple command to reach the target in the inner ear of a girl who, according to the results of a vote on Twitter, people recognized as the most hated girl of the day, the robotic bees showed different ways her achievements. Some tried to break through the window, others through the door, others through the ventilation. It's not because bees are so smart and resourceful. Quite the contrary, they acted exclusively primitively, following a basic set of simple rules. They tried all the options, stupidly poking into all the cracks. This clearly demonstrates the principle of complex behavior of a system based on simple rules.
A movable sculpture of robotic bees in the developer's office. Photo: TV series “Black Mirror”
As the swarm of robotic bees was given one task, it seemed as if they were being guided by some invisible force. Although in reality each drone was autonomous and governed by a simple set of basic rules.
By the way, engineers from Harvard University helped the filmmakers in developing the robot bees from Black Mirror.
The US Department of Defense drones are much less advanced than in the movies. And when the military calls them with the prefix “micro-,” this can only cause a grin. Perhaps a new definition for the word “micro” should be added to the dictionary?
Microdrone Perdix
Technical characteristics of the devices:
Propellers: 6.6 cm
Frame: 16.5 cm
Wingspan: 30.0 cm
Weight: 290 g
Flight time: more than 20 minutes
Maximum speed: more than 40-60 knots (74-111 km/h)
Perdix is the nephew and student of Daedalus in Greek mythology.
The swarm drone system was developed by the Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO) of the US Department of Defense, in collaboration with the US Naval Air Systems Command. The devices were launched into the air from three carrier-based F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighter-bombers.
During testing, the group of drones demonstrated a number of unique swarm formation capabilities, including collective decision making, adaptive formation changes on the fly, and “self-healing” of the group.
Each of the boids in the swarm system American army kept in touch with other boids. There is no leader or commander, which allows the swarm to successfully survive the loss of individual boids and continue coordinated actions.
According to the military leadership, such groups of cheap disposable boids are capable of effectively carrying out complex missions for which large, expensive devices are now used. In addition, there is no need for constant human control. People may become detached from the operation of such autonomous systems. In the absence of a person, they act much more efficiently, because they make decisions faster and instantly react to external factors.
Perdix is a cheap, lightweight drone whose body is 3D printed. The drones themselves were originally created by students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and then adapted for military use by scientists and engineers from the Lincoln Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT Lincoln Laboratory). The work has continued since 2013. Since then, Perdix's software and hardware configuration have continually improved: it is now in its 6th generation of drones. The system will continue to be upgraded in the future.
Tests have proven the drones' functionality after being transported at Mach 0.6 at a temperature of -10°C, as well as after shocks due to the shooting of IR decoys from fighter jets.
The Perdix's specifications indicate that it is a drone for reconnaissance missions, but the use of swarm intelligence significantly expands the functionality of this device. It’s easy to imagine how a swarm of such drones, armed with explosive ammunition (for example, grenades), carries out combat missions.
The use of armed drones on the battlefield is intended to reduce losses in manpower, but at the same time creates additional risks. In February 2016, experts published a report warning of an increased risk of erroneous strikes when using autonomous weapons: “This could happen due to hackers, enemy manipulation of the drone’s behavior, unexpected interactions with the environment, or simple breakdowns and errors in the drone.” software, writes Paul Scharre of the Center for a New American Security, one of the authors of the report. - Moreover, as the complexity of systems increases, it becomes increasingly difficult to verify the behavior of the system under all possible conditions; the number of potential interactions between the system and the environment is simply too great.”
Human Rights Watch calls for signing international agreement, which will preemptively ban the development, production and use of autonomous weapons.
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