Unmanned aerial vehicles are firmly established on the field of modern battle, or rather, in the sky above the theater of operations. Even the smallest and simplest drones, drones and quadcopters are actively used for reconnaissance purposes and for adjusting artillery fire. At the same time, the tactics of using drones does not stand still. The war of the future will be characterized by the use of a swarm of drones. Research and development in this area is carried out in many countries of the world, including Russia.
For example, recently the attention of American journalists was attracted by the presentation of the concept of joint use of small-sized kamikaze drones Flock-93 ("Flock-93"). The concept, for the development of which scientists from the famous Nikolai Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy are responsible, was presented in Moscow during the international exhibition INTERPOLITEX-2019. At the same time, the debut of "Pack-93" took place in the summer of this year at the "Army-2019" forum. In the near future, such concepts will be able to significantly change the nature of combat operations of ground forces around the world.
Drone swarm tactics
Currently, the armed forces of almost all states are working on the creation and testing of the tactics of a swarm of drones or UAVs (UAV Swarm). This technology makes it possible to effectively use a large number of reconnaissance-strike and reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicles simultaneously. At the same time, work is underway on the control of ground drones. As you might guess, the principle of the swarm itself was taken from the world around us, scientists spied it on insects. The considered tactics are considered very promising and in the future opens up practically unlimited opportunities for the military on the battlefield, allowing them to conduct successful and effective reconnaissance and allowing them to confidently hit ground targets with minimal material and, more importantly, human losses. The wars of the future are increasingly seen as machine wars.
The media have repeatedly raised questions that the swarm of drones will be almost impossible to destroy completely, and all training of such devices will only mean replacing the software. This will make the swarm of drones universal, it can be easily adjusted to the solution of certain tasks over the battlefield. At the same time, more and more research in this area is being carried out not only with the participation of unmanned aerial vehicles, which have long become a highly effective means of modern warfare, but also ground-based drones.
The leading countries working in this direction are today the United States and China. Russia is trying to keep up with them, but so far domestic achievements in this area look more modest. At the same time, the Russian military has already faced attacks from an impromptu swarm of drones that tried to influence the Russian Khmeimim air base located in Syria. At the same time, real developments that would be close to being adopted for service and would be able to take part in a combined arms battle have not yet been represented by any country in the world. In an interview with the TASS agency, Vladimir Mikheev, who holds the post of general director of KRET, said that in our country such a swarm of UAVs could be created only within the next five years.
In the United States, specialists from the defense agency DARPA are actively working on the creation of a swarm of drones. Not so long ago, the agency's specialists conducted regular tests of an active swarm of UAVs, which took place at Fort Benning (Georgia). Active tests using dozens of drones were carried out to test the new UAV motion control system. The program under test allows small drones to move synchronously through space, including rebuilding to simulate a large aircraft, such as a fighter jet. At the same time, the Americans emphasize that the tests they are conducting are so far aimed at solving reconnaissance tasks, primarily during battles in urban areas. DARPA's OFFensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics, or OFFSET for short, creates up to 250 autonomous systems that collect critical information for military units operating in urban areas with limited visibility, varying altitudes and limited capabilities communication and mobility. According to the plans of American specialists, a swarm of drones will help infantrymen in real time receive a lot of useful information in battle, including data on enemy firing points, the location of defense lines, snipers and other data.
Introduced in China, the concept of a drone swarm solves attacking targets. Specialists of a large corporation Norinco are responsible for the development. Back in 2018, the company presented several tactical scenarios for the combat use of a swarm of drones as part of the major international exhibition China Airshow 2018 in Zhuhai, China. The Chinese UAVs shown are multicopters of various sizes. The swarm is formed from models MR-40 and MR-150, equipped with 4 and 6 propellers, respectively. Each of the presented drones was equipped with a spherical small-sized gyro-stabilized optoelectronic platform, search and aiming radar and other equipment that can be effectively used for reconnaissance. At the same time, it is allowed to use a wide range of aviation weapons, including guided missiles, aerial bombs, machine guns, parachuted submunitions and even automatic grenade launchers, which are also produced by Norinco. In an interview with TASS reporters, company representatives said that the concept being created makes it easy to adapt a swarm of drones to solve various combat missions, including a group air strike against the enemy.
Swarm of unmanned aerial vehicles "Flock-93"
The control system developed in our country for small unmanned aerial vehicles designed to deliver a massive strike has received the official designation "Flock-93". The system was demonstrated at exhibitions in 2019, most recently at the INTERPOLITEX-2019 exhibition, which was held at the end of October in Moscow. The basis of the Russian system is a self-organizing swarm of unmanned aerial vehicles SOM-93, each of which is able to take on board up to 2.5 kg of various combat loads. The possibility of creating a swarm of UAVs from small and cheap drones designed to destroy various ground targets, for example, automobile convoys on the march, really worries foreign journalists, who have paid sufficient attention to this project. Articles about the Flock-93 system have appeared in various American publications, including c4isrnet.com and Popular Mechanics.
Based on the materials already published in the Russian media, as well as data from the exhibitions held, one can get an approximate idea of the tactics and functioning of the Russian swarm of unmanned aerial vehicles. In the Russian system "Flock-93", the swarm is controlled by a UAV-leader. The remaining members of the drone swarm maintain a permanent visual contract with the leader, using the capabilities of their infrared cameras. In the event that the leader drone fails for various reasons, including under the influence of enemy fire resistance, another unmanned vehicle automatically takes its place, which begins to control the swarm. At the same time, the number of UAVs integrated into the system can be increased indefinitely. For example, creating a swarm from a set of small groups, where the leader drone is the leader for 2-3 slave vehicles, which, in turn, can be the leaders for their fragments of the drone swarm.
The presented drones can easily perform vertical take-off and landing, which allows them to be launched even from confined spaces. For example, the entire swarm can be lifted into the sky from a small clearing covered by a forest, or from the roof of a building in a dense urban area. A swarm of hundreds of small kamikaze drones filled with explosives raised into the sky will be difficult to stop, and drones that have broken through to their targets can inflict tangible losses on the enemy. Such devices are especially dangerous against unarmored vehicles.
The advantages of the "Flock-93" system include the relatively low cost of a blow that such a swarm is capable of inflicting on an enemy. The main purpose of the swarm of unmanned aerial vehicles, which is created as part of the work on the control system "Flock-93", is to strike at group and single ground, as well as air targets in the face of opposition from air defense systems and electronic warfare systems of the enemy. To effectively and successfully counter a flock of drones, which are small, low-flying targets with low speed, the enemy must have very effective means of combat, which is quite rare in real combat conditions.
American experts note that Russia has not yet demonstrated its swarm of UAVs in action. But the very emergence of a system that can effectively control dozens of small drones is an interesting project that fits into global trends. Prior to the demonstration of the Staya-93 system, the issues of working in Russia with such a large number of drones were not publicly covered. At the same time, American journalists believe that Russia is still lagging behind the leading Western countries in the field of such developments, but the gap will gradually decrease.
