One of the major problems any military force has is this: All too often, they train to fight the last war, and neglect looking around at current conflicts for lessons. One such current conflict is the Russo-Ukrainian War, which is still somehow dragging on; another is the United States’ takedown of the 7th-century barbarians running Iran. Both of these conflicts have given us plenty to consider when it comes to one of the newer weapons of war: Drones.
Drones, especially drone swarms, pose the possibility of overwhelming traditional air defenses and causing significant damage, not only to combat forces but also to an army’s logistical trains; that’s something that Ukraine in particular seems to have a knack for. Now, the American company Lockheed Martin has announced the development of some new weapons systems that combine AI with the weapons themselves, specifically to counter drone swarms. So far, the company isn’t revealing a lot of detail, but Lockheed Martin’s CEO, Jim Taiclet, recently handed out a few hints.
A top U.S. defense contractor pulled back the curtain on next-generation AI-powered systems designed to hunt down and destroy swarms of enemy drones as the U.S. rapidly expands its next-generation warfighting capabilities.
“We are inserting technology of all types into our systems,” Lockheed Martin CEO Jim Taiclet told FOX Business on Thursday, detailing the company’s AI-powered counter-drone system, Sanctum.
Taiclet said the system uses artificial intelligence to detect incoming drones, determine whether they pose a threat and predict where they are headed before they can be intercepted or disabled.
Knowing where a drone swarm is headed as long as possible before it could arrive, obviously, would give defenders a big advantage. T’was ever thus; the advent of radar and its use by the British made a lot of German bomber aviators maladjusted during the Battle of Britain, when they would fly across the English Channel to find several flights of British Hurricanes and Spitfires neatly arranged on their flight path. The same would seem to apply here, with drones and drone swarms; the sooner we can discern their targets, the better.
Lockheed Martin isn’t talking about just hitting drones, either:
“This technology alone is fantastic in being able to essentially hit a bullet with a bullet in space and destroy an incoming ballistic missile that’s threatening our people, threatening our bases, threatening our allies,” he said.
“But along with that, we’ve got to match — with technology — other threats, and we want to match the threat to the cost of our counterthreat.”
The company is also focusing on a device called MORFIUS, a system capable of flying close to small enemy drones and “zapping” them with high-powered microwave pulses before moving on to the next target.
“This drone that we’re building with the help of AI will enable us to attack 50 different drones with one mission without firing any weaponry,” he shared.
A little short on details, perhaps, but interesting nonetheless; and it is perhaps belaboring the obvious to note that it’s not really a good idea to broadcast all of the capabilities of a potential new weapons system, especially one like this, that’s on the cutting edge of modern combat force. Lockheed Martin seems to get that.
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Drones are a fairly new tool of war. Ballistic missiles, not so much, but they remain difficult to counter. But the United States can either stay on the cutting edge of these new technologies, or we can lag behind and run the risk of being overrun. The War Department seems inclined to the former. And, honestly, the American taxpayers should be, as well; this is something that is actually a constitutional responsibility of the federal government, as well as part of the one primary purpose of government: To protect the liberty and property of the citizens.
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