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Development of Manned-Unmanned Autonomous Collaborative Technology
Author: Military Eagle Think Tank Source: Military Eagle Dynamics
The manned-unmanned collaborative technology will directly affect the integration level of combat personnel and weaponry in future warfare, determining the survival capability, combat styles, and even decision-making cycles of manned systems. The US military places great importance on manned-unmanned collaborative technology, believing that it will help ensure its competitiveness, deterrence, and victory against high-end adversaries in complex, unknown, and confrontational environments.
(1) DARPA Launches “Air Combat Evolution” and “Skyborg” Projects
In May 2023,DARPA launched the “Air Combat Evolution” (ACE) project, aimed at researching human-machine collaborative combat and testing how pilots and artificial intelligence can build trust in the most intense aerial combat situations.DARPA stated in the project announcement that the ACE project will study methods to measure, calibrate, enhance, and predict human trust in autonomous air combat systems, validating the combat capabilities of human-machine formations in a simulated environment, laying the groundwork for future real-world tests.
The US Air Force is testing the “Skyborg” intelligent program to promote artificial intelligence applications in air combat. In July, the US Air Force Research Laboratory revealed that it is developing the “Skyborg” project, which will begin flight tests of the intelligent air combat program developed under this project starting in the summer of 2019, and aims to transition the project to procurement in FY2021 using an accelerated procurement model, with early military utility assessments of deployable prototypes by 2023. The project envisions using artificial intelligence to achieve autonomous flight and self-management of some combat tasks on unmanned aerial vehicles; the flight tests aim to master the performance of the intelligent program in controlled environments, focusing on how to test the rationality of autonomous system decision-making. This project will collaborate with the laboratory’s “Autonomous Capability Teaming” (ACT3) and DARPA’s “Air Combat Evolution” projects.
(2) US Air Force Advances Manned-Unmanned Systems Teaming Enabling Architecture Research
The US Air Force Research Laboratory awarded General Electric Aviation a contract for the “Manned-Unmanned Systems Teaming Enabling Architecture” (TEAMS) prototype project. The main content of this project is the architecture modeling and prototype design work under the “Flexible, Reliable Manned-Unmanned Systems” (FAMUS) project, which will define a series of architectures, processes, methods, tools, and environments to accelerate technology maturity, laying the foundation for heterogeneous, multi-person, multi-aircraft teams to move towards real combat. The project team members also include Modern Technology Solutions Inc. (MTSI), Science Systems Company (SSCI), Reliable Computing Company, and GE Global Research Center (GRC). The project contract duration is 24 months.
(3) US Army Begins Testing Manned-Unmanned Aircraft Collaborative Training Project
The US Army has launched a manned-unmanned aircraft collaborative demonstration project called “Advanced Teaming,” aimed at helping helicopter pilots better collaborate with automated unmanned aerial vehicles during combat. The system developed under this project will be installed on the Army’s latest future vertical lift aircraft, including the Army’s “Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft” (FARA) and a medium-lift helicopter named “Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft” (FLRAA), as well as a new unmanned aerial vehicle called “Advanced Unmanned Aerial System.” The Army expects that the initial technology maturity of project participants will vary, but most will develop to a technology maturity level of 6 or 7, with the potential to transition to pre-component development and prototype formation.
The US Army completed the first capability test of the “Architecture, Automation, Autonomy, and Interactive Interface” system in the Mojave Desert of California. During the test, a weapon operator aboard an MH-47 “Chinook” helicopter used an iPad to control an MQ-1C “Gray Eagle” unmanned aerial vehicle to launch a GBU-69 small glide bomb, successfully guiding it to strike a time-sensitive target just detected.
(4) US Successfully Demonstrates Collaborative Combat Capability of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in Denied Environments
In March 2022,DARPA demonstrated the collaborative combat capability of a swarm of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in denied environments (CODE) project, showing that the UAVs could successfully execute mission objectives even when communication was lost and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) were unavailable. In the test, six RQ-23 “Shark” UAVs equipped with various payloads took off sequentially. At the Yuma Test Site of the US Army, the mission team tracked these UAVs from a very small control center, while 14 virtual UAVs were also shown on the aviation map. This demonstration combined Raytheon’s software and autonomous algorithms with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory’s “Blue Army Network” to create a realistic real-time/virtual/constructed testing environment. In four demonstrations, the test team planned various virtual targets, threats, and countermeasures, observing how the “Shark” UAVs completed their mission objectives under suboptimal conditions. The “Shark” UAVs used in the demonstration were alternative platforms with only 1/10 of the speed and performance of the planned integrated platform, but they provided valuable exploration for applications on higher-level platforms. The virtual threats and effects presented by the “Blue Army Network” were also scaled to match the “Shark” UAVs. It is reported that after the completion of the “Collaborative Combat in Denied Environments” project, it will be taken over by the Naval Air Systems Command. Throughout the development process, the Navy has built an algorithm library and stated that if the Army wishes to utilize the system prototype, they can provide not only software but also an open development environment and all relevant security protocols. The Navy is also prepared to transfer the collaborative combat capabilities in denied environments to other military branches.
(5) US Navy Advances Small UAV Swarm Technology Demonstration
Media reports disclose that the US Navy is working with Northrop Grumman on a project called “Remedy,” which includes deploying small UAV swarms from integrated electronic warfare platforms (such as the Navy’s EA-18G “Growler” electronic warfare aircraft) to scout enemy radar and other battlefield radiation sources, and potentially participate in electronic attack missions to disrupt enemy sensor networks. The “Remedy” project will use the “Rapid Response” X small UAV developed by VX Aerospace, located in North Carolina, which can carry various payloads, be loaded into the aircraft’s weapon bay, and launched from the mother ship to fly outside the defense zone ahead of jamming and attack aircraft according to pre-programmed routes. Due to the small size and slow flight speed of these UAVs, they are difficult to detect, allowing them to approach radar systems closely and use new jamming techniques, even infiltrating command networks to execute cyber attacks.
