A 2020 backgrounder on drone swarms cited the tactical promise of stringing together dozens if not hundreds of UAVs into coordinated attack and defense maneuvers, though the article noted that the technology remained largely theoretical. Fast-forward just four years and the drone swarm is a battlefield reality that is upending conflicts in Ukraine, Israel, and the Red Sea.
What Is a Drone Swarm?
Drone swarm technology involves coordinating groups of three to thousands of drones to execute missions collectively with minimal human intervention. Compared to single drones, swarms offer enhanced efficiency and resilience, performing multiple tasks simultaneously and remaining on mission when individual drones fail. A swarm can be controlled in various ways, including preprogrammed missions with specific flight paths, centralized control from a ground station or a single control drone, and distributed control where drones communicate and collaborate using shared information (fully autonomous). More sophisticated control techniques involve swarm intelligence, inspired by the collective behavior of insects and birds, and artificial intelligence to enable drone swarms to adapt to new or unforeseen situations.
There are civilian uses for the technology; for example, drone swarms can be useful in wildfire management, where they can help control fires, assess damage, locate access points, and deploy firefighting substances autonomously. Agriculture is another civilian field where drone swarms could be leveraged, specifically to spray chemicals or monitor for blight. Moreover, these drones tend to be considerably cheaper than conventional methods, allowing farmers and rescuers to cover more ground and expend less capital in the process.
It is however the military realm where the effects of drone swarms will be felt the most, and recent battle zones ranging from Syria to Ukraine to Nagorno-Karabakh demonstrate just how quickly conventional tactics (and frozen conflicts) can be upended by drones. Drone swarms project to be quite popular due to their expansive use cases and the tactical flexibility the afford, speak nothing of the cost savings. Drone swarms can be used to locate, overwhelm, and destroy enemy air defenses, clearing the way for manned aircraft. They are particularly effective against transport and landing craft, which are typically lightly defended. Additionally, drone swarms can serve tactical roles similar to mortars, offering long-range effects, greater maneuverability, and intelligence collection capabilities.
While the fully autonomous and AI-controlled vision of drone swarms has yet to be fielded (for now), examples abound of state militaries employing drone swarms. The US Navy was testing an offensive drone swarm against surface ships in 2021, consisting of the Raytheon-produced and tube-launched Coyote platform, just one year after the successful launch of some 1,000 CICADA miniature drones from a C-130 transport plane. The tests reflect a slow but sure elevation of drone swarms in US military thinking, and the idea has also been coming up in the context of a hypothetical conflict with China over Taiwan. Planners believe that the US Navy could essentially mine the Taiwan Strait with a swarm of kamikaze drones, frustrating Beijing’s ability to launch a conventional invasion by sea. An interesting aspect of this scenario is that it could buy time for the US Navy to reinforce Taiwan from its military bases further afield. Essentially, the drone swarm ‘hellscape,’ as it has been described by some, holds out the promise of negating China’s biggest advantage: its proximity to Taiwan.
