The Israel Defense Forces conducted more than 30 operations with the help of a swarm of drones in May. According to them, this is the first use of a swarm of drones in combat. As he writes New Scientist, drones located and attacked Hamas militants.
The technology of combining drones into swarms should increase the chances of successful reconnaissance of well-protected objects, reduce the burden on operators and significantly reduce combat losses. The US military has already tested a swarm of hundreds of drones, and the Russian ones- software for combining individual drones into groups. But the use of this technology in combat was not reported until recently.
In May, the Israel Defense Forces conducted more than 30 operations with the help of a swarm of drones. According to them, this is the first use of a swarm of drones in combat. The drones collected intelligence, located and attacked Hamas militants. Their first target was a rocket launcher hidden in an olive grove.
According to the representative of the Israel Defense Forces, all the drones were controlled by one operator. Next to him was the commander who made decisions. Several more soldiers were busy unpacking and charging the devices. The Israeli military plans not to stop there and arm various ground units with swarms of drones. The media claim that the swarm of drones that were in combat for the first time are quadrocopters developed by Elbit Systems, but a representative of the country's defense Army did not confirm this.
The observation of birds and insects that can fly, swim or swim in the same direction without colliding with obstacles and with each other helps to develop swarms of drones. How the behavior of flocks and swarms in nature inspires an increase in the autonomy of unmanned vehicles, we told in the article "Migratory drones fly" .
Vasilisa Chernyavtseva