Bill would prod Pentagon to accelerate fielding of new tech to defeat drone swarms

Penned by

Jon Harper
Jul 25, 2022 | FEDSCOOP

The Senate Armed Services Committee’s model of the fiscal 2023 Countrywide Defense Authorization Act calls for the Pentagon to come up with a new system for fielding techniques able of defeating swarms of enemy drones that U.S. troops might face on upcoming battlefields.

The textual content of the legislation, released previous 7 days, includes a variety of provisions aimed at addressing the emerging risk. While the Division of Defense has currently established up a Joint Counter-smaller Unmanned Aerial Systems Place of work (JCO) — lawmakers want the Pentagon to do far more to strengthen the military’s skill to protect towards large quantities of drones conducting coordinated assaults in opposition to U.S. assets.

“The proliferation of unmanned aerial techniques and the ability to work them in swarms poses a considerable danger to the Joint Pressure. The committee applauds the Office of Defense’s focus on immediate development and fielding of counter-UAS capabilities, but seeks to accelerate fielding of abilities that could counter UAS swarms,” the SASC said in its report on the authorization invoice.

The bill would direct the secretary of protection to establish and apply a new method to area devices to tackle the danger, to incorporate the generation of a thorough definition of ‘‘unmanned aerial method swarm’’ and a system to create and incorporate necessities for advancement, screening, and fielding of counter-swarm capabilities.

The laws would call for the Pentagon management to carry out an assessment of the threats posed by drone swarms to DOD installations and deployed armed service forces an assessment of the use or likely use of swarms by adversaries, which includes China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and non-condition actors and an investigation of enabling technologies such as autonomy and machine studying.

It would also mandate a assessment of current fielded systems and whether they efficiently counter a huge range of likely drone swarm threats an overview of DOD growth endeavours and area tests of systems that present…