During the demonstration, a swarm of several remotely piloted aircraft equipped with BriteCloud active electronic trap technology developed by Italian Leonardo was used to confuse and suppress test radars that mimicked the enemy's air defense system. The demonstration was conducted as part of the RAF's Rapid Capability Office (RCO) program to evaluate combat techniques using several small unmanned aerial systems (UAS). Inspired by swarms of insects, the "drone swarm" concept has already been recognised by the UK Ministry of Defence as the technology of the future that could change the rules of engagement. The information obtained during the demonstration will serve as a basis for potential future British programs to acquire the capabilities of an autonomous drone swarm.
A swarm of drones against enemy air defenses
The demonstration showed how a swarm of drones equipped with BriteCloud suppressed enemy radar systems with electronic noise. The tests followed a rapid development cycle, during which RCO and Leonardo engineers worked closely with English companies Callen Lenz and Blue Bear. The latter were responsible for preparing the UAS and flight control systems.
BriteCloud equipment is an intelligent silencer designed in a small form factor and packaged in a small container the size of a tin can. According to the source, BriteCloud creates such a convincing false target that technologies designed to detect traps are ineffective, which allows you to destroy a much wider range of threats. Using advanced technology basedon Digital Radio Frequency Memory (DRFM), which provides both Doppler distortion and range overlap, BriteCloud defeats recognition methods and systems using the "gate" of range and speed.
Originally deployed as anoff-board reusable active decoy ( EAD), BriteCloud has been used by the Royal Air Force since 2018 to protect combat aircraft from enemy radar-guided missiles. Each trap (projectile) fired by the EAD mimics the radar signature of the aircraft after it is launched, resulting in missile guidance radar systems tracking the trap rather than the aircraft itself.
British UAS developer Blue Bear has announced the completion of the second phase of the 18-month 5GRIT project. It culminated in drone flights over an arable farm in Yorkshire and a livestock farm in Cumbria. At the same time, the UAS was controlled via 5G protocol for hundreds of miles from London and Bedford.
A swarm of drones and a new revolutionary opportunity
Swarm technology is progressing rapidly in the UK. In 2019, the Intergovernmental Department for Innovation DASA (Defense and Security Accelerator) allocated 2.5 million pounds to a consortium led by Blue Bear Systems Research Ltd for the development of "drone swarm"technology. The goal was to deploy enhanced autonomy through machine learning and artificial intelligence. As a result, it was planned to reduce the number of necessary operators, the time for their training and the cognitive load on any operator during active operations. Blue Bear first demonstrated this capability in April 2020.
The ability to deploy a group of low-cost autonomous systems, self-managed or managed by a single operator, provides a new paradigm for battlefield operations. It allows you to perform very complex missions based on the swarm at the same time against one or more of the objectives are time-sensitive and highly effective way.
The UK Ministry of Defense is accelerating the development of groups of network drones as part of the Transformation Fund announced in 2019 with a budget of 160 million pounds. It is expected that the new systems will be able to confuse and suppress enemy air defenses. led by f-35 and typhoon aircraft, these uas groups, using deception and suppression of key air defense systems, will be able to penetrate enemy restricted airspace (a2ad). in april 2020, no. 216 squadron raf at waddington was reformed and refocused on operational experiments and deployment of networked drones. Such missions are currently part of the Future Combat Air System Technology Initiative (FCAS TI), which plans to deliver sixth-generation Tempest combat aircraft in the 2030s.
The concept of FCAS-TI
Based on the materials of the resource defense-update.com
