April 21, 2020 | International, Aerospace
Nathan Strout
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has issued nine new contracts to companies developing drone swarm technologies, the agency announced April 13.
Through the agency's Offensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics program, or OFFSET, it hopes to foster technology developments that will enable 250 small unmanned air or ground robots to work together in support of the war fighter.
The program works in five main areas: swarm tactics, swarm autonomy, human-swarm teaming, virtual environment and physical test bed. The agency has hosted multiple swarm sprints to encourage rapid innovation in one or more of those areas.
The nine awards mark the fifth such swarm sprint, with this one focused on swarm tactics and physical test beds in an urban environment.
“The urban environment presents compelling challenges such as tall buildings, tight spaces, and limited sight lines,” Timothy Chung, the OFFSET program manager in DARPA's Tactical Technology Office, said in an agency news release. “Enhancing the Swarm Physical Testbeds that tackle those unique challenges is a desired goal of the OFFSET program.”
Four of the participants will be tackling the swarm tactics portion of the sprint, where they will be asked to solve problems such as “disrupting the opposition's decision making, obfuscating swarm intent, updating maps of a dynamic environment, and maintaining the swarm's communications indoors.”
The remaining five performers will work on the physical test bed thrust area, which includes reducing deployment times, utilizing new navigation sensors, incorporating fixed-wing aircraft into the swarm and enhancing mobility for robotic, wheeled vehicles in urban settings.
Participants will incorporate their technologies into the OFFSET swarm systems architecture to demonstrate their respective solutions, with field tests taking place in December 2020.
The recipients are as follows:
Thrust area: Physical test bed
Thrust area: Swarm tactics
October 3, 2024 | International, Land
The US Department of Defense has restructured its Security Cooperation workforce to meet the unprecedented demand from partner nations.
June 22, 2020 | International, Aerospace
Dans une interview avec Ouest-France, Gérard de Boisboissel, ingénieur de recherche au centre de recherche des écoles militaires de Saint-Cyr-Coëtquidan, revient sur la militarisation de l'armée française, entre les drones aériens Reaper déployés au Sahel, les drones marins de guerre des mines développés à Brest ou « mules » mécaniques en test pour les forces terrestres. « Il est inéluctable que la robotisation de nos équipements va s'accélérer, explique-t-il. Les avantages sont trop importants, notamment la réduction du danger pour l'Homme et sa préservation, mais aussi pour l'omniprésence que permettent ces machines sur le terrain, 24 heures sur 24, sous réserve d'une autonomie énergétique, ainsi que leur meilleure réactivité et précision. Ce seront de nouveaux pions tactiques au service du chef militaire ». Ouest-France du 21 juin 2020
September 6, 2018 | International, Naval
By Gina Harkins Some of the Navy's ships could stay in service well beyond their scheduled lifespan as leaders look for ways to modernize existing vessels as part of a decades-long fleet buildup. Navy leaders want to have 355 ships by 2030, but that doesn't mean that all of them will come new. Officials are studying ways to salvage some of the service's aging vessels as part of that plus-up -- and that doesn't come without challenges. "[Operating] as an away-game Navy is very expensive, and this requires us to look at the lifespan of everything we own," Vice Adm. William Merz, deputy chief of Naval Operations for Warfare Systems, said Wednesday at conference hosted by Defense News. Navy leaders plan to detail the kinds of capabilities they'll need in a 355-ship fleet in an extensive report expected to be released next year. Part of that process, Merz said, will include taking a look at what ships will still be relevant in a future fight. That's an important factor in determining how much money to invest in refurbishing ships that have already been in service for decades. The Navy recently decided to extend the lives of some cruisers and destroyers, he said, because they're so effective. Full article: https://www.military.com/daily-news/2018/09/05/355-ship-navy-will-mean-extending-vessels-past-planned-lifespans-admiral.html