Pentagon Demonstrates 'Swarming' of Micro Drones

The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) said it conducted one of the largest demonstrations of “swarming” micro drones in October at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in California. The Pentagon announced the demonstration on January 9, the day after it was featured on the CBS news program 60 Minutes, which was granted exclusive access to the test.

Three F/A-18 Super Hornets launched 103 Perdix micro drones for the exercise, which the Pentagon intended as a demonstration of advanced swarm behaviors such as collective decision-making and adaptive formation flying of autonomous air vehicles. Designed in 2011 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology engineering students, the 10-ounce, tandem-wing Perdix was modified for military use by MIT Lincoln Laboratory beginning in 2013, according to the announcement. Made from commercial components, the design is now in its sixth generation.

The Pentagon’s Stategic Capabilities Office (SCO) and the Naval Air Systems Command conducted the October test. It was one of the DOD’s first such demonstrations using teams of small autonomous aircraft, and confirmed the air vehicle design under potential deployment conditions encountered during ejection from a fighter’s flare dispensers. Air Force pilots first launched the Perdix from F-16 flare canisters at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., in September 2014; a year later 90 Perdix operations, including land and maritime surveillance missions, were flown during the U.S. Pacific Command’s Northern Edge exercise in Alaska. The latter exercise hosted one of the first swarm demonstrations consisting of 20 drones.

“Due to the complex nature of combat, Perdix are not pre-programmed synchronized individuals, they are a collective organism, sharing one distributed brain for decision-making and adapting to each other like swarms in nature,” said William Roper, SCO director. “Because every Perdix communicates and collaborates with every other Perdix, the swarm has no leader and can gracefully adapt to drones entering or exiting the team.”

The SCO is working with the military services to transition Perdix into existing programs of record, with a goal of producing batches of up to 1,000 of the micro vehicles, the Pentagon said. It is working with a sister organization—the Defense Industrial Unit-Experimental (DIUx)—to identify companies “capable of accurately replicating Perdix using the MIT Lincoln Laboratory design.” Outgoing secretary of Defense Ash Carter spearheaded the creation of both the SCO (as deputy secretary in 2012) and the DIUx.