Marine Corps developing low cost robot swarms to counter enemy drones.

• Author: Versprille, Allyson

* As the technology for unmanned systems proliferates, one of the biggest challenges facing the military today is countering small, inexpensive drones used by the enemy in unexpected ways, said a Marine Corps official.

"Growth in [unmanned system] capabilities, coupled with their affordability and accessibility, make it increasingly more difficult to identify how our potential adversaries will employ these systems," said Jeff Tomczak, director of the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory's science and technology division. "Based upon our success in using unmanned systems, we know that the enemy is adapting, and to a larger degree, openly purchasing similar technology to use on tomorrow's battlefield."

For these reasons, the service is aggressively pursuing capabilities to counter unmanned systems that will be ready when they are needed the most, he said.

There are several government agencies and military branches examining this problem, said Capt. Adam Thomas, the aviation combat element branch head for the S&T division of the warfighting lab.

These threats exist today, he added. "These aren't future threats we're talking about. This is stuff that is out there that we are running up against."

State and non-state actors are using easily obtained and modified commercial, off-the-shelf drones for malicious purposes, he said.

He pointed to recent incidents where the Islamic State has used small unmanned aerial systems to conduct mission planning, real-time surveillance and to help direct artillery fire against its enemies. The group is "employing unmanned aircraft, and they're conducting reconnaissance on the forces they're fighting," Thomas said.

To develop a potential solution to this problem and prepare for how the enemy might employ unmanned systems in the future, the Marine Corps is focusing on key capabilities such as swarming and collaborative autonomy.

Swarming technology would allow a Marine to employ a horde of small, inexpensive drones to perform a variety of missions. Swarms can range in size but typically consist of 10 to 50 expendable unmanned aerial systems, according to a Marine Corps fact sheet. This technology has the potential to be used against both manned and unmanned platforms, Tomczak said.

Because the U.S. military is looking at this technology as a possible offensive capability, it has to be assumed that other countries are also exploring this concept and will employ it in the future, he said.

"You create a capability and...