The Army Warfare Experiment (AWE) 2023 featured micro drones, hybrid electric jet aircraft, and autonomous vehicles.
This annual event reflects the Army’s focus on incorporating advanced technologies into future military strategies.
Now in its sixth year, the AWE serves as the Army’s primary innovation programme, concentrating on urban warfare technologies. This year, over 40 systems from 35 suppliers, predominantly British, were tested by the 2nd Battalion The Royal Yorkshire Regiment over four weeks on Salisbury Plain.
The experiment involved international collaboration, with participation from the US, Netherlands, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and observers from Canada, Australia, among others.
A notable participant in the AWE was the Hydra 400, the world’s first hybrid heavy lift drone. It boasts a unique combination of electric motors and jet engines, facilitating a lift capacity of 400kg and can be prepared for flight in just six minutes.
The Black Hornet 4 drone was another significant addition, providing enhanced situational awareness in urban settings. Software advancements were also a focus, with the Instant Connect Enterprise (ICE) software being tested for its real-time language translation capabilities, aiding communication between multinational troops.
Colonel Toby Till, Commander of the UK’s Experimentation Trials Group, underlined the importance of industry collaboration: “This is the third iteration in the AWE urban focused series… Our collaboration with industry on this event is key.”
The findings from AWE 2023 will guide future investment in military technology, aiming to enhance the Army’s capabilities in modern warfare. You can read more here.
I feel there needs to be a better way of not only controlling the drone, but how the information is displayed, especially when using the smaller drones like the Hornet. One of the current methods methods is to strap a ruggedisd touch screen tablet to your arm. Then control the drone via it, along with displaying what the drone sees on the tablet. This means to operate it you must be “hull down”, i.e static and preferably in some sort of cover. You can’t for instance use it whilst on a recce patrol, where you have to remain mobile etc. Other methods using FPV drones show the operator sits on a chair, googles on and operating the drone via a traditional RC handset. Again not very mobile, plus you are extremely cut-off to what is happening around you.
Ok, this may sound a bit Scifi. But I do believe it is available with today’s commercial off the shelf technology. Basically it is a combination of how Halo’s © Master Chief and Cortana interact. This is where you use a head up display mounted to your helmet. But the imagery is overlaid over what you can see in a smaller pop out box. The control of the drone is done verbally via an AI assistant, i.e. Cortana/ Siri like. Such as: “Cortana have the drone scan an area left to right 50m to my front, using thermal imagery!” It could also use eye scanning technology to give “cursive menu driven and yes/no” types of command when using your voice is not an option.
This would mean that the operator still has local situational awareness. But can also remain mobile when the situation demands it. Thereby giving the drone movement commands via voice, or by eye movement. Leaving the AI to handle the actual flight control. Therefore, the drone is operated hands-free allowing the operator to remain mobile! It could also mean that via data-link the imagery is shard between the squad and displayed via the linked helmet mounted head’s up display.
I think you need to be concentrated in what drone is viewing and not be that casual.
Also must say not even in ideal situation an human can control everything that is viewing in over 1 hour looking at screen, we get very tired specially if what we seen is not interesting. AI will be always necessary to detect non natural patterns.
Sounds something like Vision Pro (or Metas future Mirror Lake) could offer as it can be adjusted between max immersion with the outside environment to max VR and with control via eye movement of finger/hand movements and offering full computer level AI control, at least eventually.
It’s difficult doing two things at the same time – moving around and maintaining alertness while also focusing on a screen / user interface. The layered image / ‘HUD’ helmet visor from science fiction doesn’t take account information overload, fatigue, and distraction. My guess is that we are moving towards area denial systems that work like flying mines and are able to select their own target. Ideally, they would run sophisticated AI systems, but the cost is likely to be prohibitive, instead they will probably use quite basic IR sensors for targeting. How this works in practise, and the whole ethical dimension, is another thing. We can sure of one thing though, the ethics won’t stop other people from developing these systems.
You’d be surprised at how it can become natural to use overlaid imagery. I have a mate who was an Apache pilot for 8 years. Who said they had two separate imagery feeds feeding the left and right eyes. Where the brain merged the imagery into one. He said it was initially hard to get used to. But with more use it became normal to use. He did say that some people never got used to it.
Like you said AI will be the answer, to minimizing cognitive overload. If they can scale down a device to be the size of a mobile phone, that holds the AI, provides the imagery feed, and controls the drone via data-link. I think would be doable. But the battery has to last more than 24 hours. Which may need a separate bigger battery feed.
I think what puts things into perspective. Is the use of the 1000 drones used in London’s New Year celebration. But also from the movie “Angel has Fallen”. Both of these examples show what not only is possible, but what people are thinking a drone can be used for. The Ukraine war has shown how FPV drones are being used to not only target vehicles but also people. Area denial as you suggested may be the next iteration. But that will need a large number of drones cycling back and forth to the patrol area and a mobile power station, probably using transformer charging.
We are starting to see effective countermeasures to these small drones. The MoD will soon be issuing the SMASH sighting system for individual weapons. But also a jammer that the infantryman will carry. They still haven’t come up with a way for an infantry squad to detect the drone from a distance, that is portable yet. I’m sure that’s next on the list though!
Yes, the futurology of it is fascinating, how different technologies and mission requirements, some of them not yet invented or fully comprehended, will slot into place (like the development of the tank). I guess there will be different sizes and kinds of drones for specific uses. From section level to larger systems that supplement long range missiles / artillery / aircraft.
My mate who flew the Apache, has a party trick when he’s drunk. He’s able to point his eyes in different directions whilst having a conversation with you. It’s really really off putting.
😂 Hopefully just a party trick, like being double jointed, and not part of the training!
I have seen 200 drones operating as one unit. It was pretty mental to watch!
If that number could be controlled by a couple of people, just think what 4 6 or 800 drones could do, in hunting out and damaging/destroying a warship?
50 to kill a tank, or other armoured vehicle. Mind truly boggled.
Then you see the US Microwave drone defence system and realise that the likelihood of small drones being used against a warhip are minimal….
It’s certainly going to be a leapfrog process between drones and drone defences which is already going on in Ukraine in all honesty. I would certainly guess a ship is better placed potentially to defend against them with a laser or microwave weapon than on land for obvious reasons around line of sight. On the other hand ships are a more visible target.
Small drones can mission kill a ship.
These drones are not the future of warfare they are the present reality….
Exactly. The future does not arrive, it gatecrashes.
“These are not the Drones you are looking for”🚁
😄👌
Exactly Obi won….
Obi wan…. Predictive text 👎
Ahh obi won from the Chinese Star Wars knockoff. The communist Jedi’s take on the capitalist empire
Only need to watch the Ukrainians to see how to operate them
They trained 10,000 new drone pilots this year, using such drones like FPV drones, and R18
Whilst we just over complicate things
The Russians also. Some rather brutal Videos are being posted by both sides, Trench Warfare isn’t like it used to be and many vehicles have no defence against these, or so it appears. “Down the hatch” seems to have taken on a new meaning.
DaveyB Flying a drone is a bit like driving a car whilst Texting and once it’s BVR, you are transfixed to the screen with little spacial or peripheral awareness.
Indeed, that is the problem, unless you’re operating it from a ways behind the lines.
My son has one of the small fold up DJI quadcopters, that you control via your mobile phone. He is pretty good as a pilot. Flying it from the garden, then through the house and back out again. The worse thing is that when it is over 100m away, you can’t hear it. You might catch it from its movement. But otherwise it can be watching you without you knowing about it. Mind you anything over 15khz, I can’t hear anyway!
Combine your son’s drone with AI and decision making algorithms and you could have a fearsome weapon system
It’s a really small Drone though, not much carrying capacity.
I have a Potensic Atom SE, It’s very similar and you are right, you lose site and sound really easily so you have to concentrate on the phone, the auto return and land is a god send.
Can someone tell me if the H-47 chinooks are still coming in the next few years, not cancelled?
Drones are being over hyped along with artillery. In this particular war with two third world countries facing off drones and artillery have a place.
If nato joined in air superiority would happen within days if not hours. I can’t see anyway Russian Sam systems can operate and expect to survive against air power. Once air dominance has been achieved 500 and 2000 pound bombs will remove any trace of russian trench lines and artillery. So what are these small drones going to achieve from hundreds of km back beyond a no man’s land 300 km + wide.
Third world countries? Pretty sure neither Ukr or Russia are third world. Artillery has a role because it allows much faster responses than air power. Drones allow both sides to fly under the air defences of the other, negating air superiority even if one side had achieved it.
I’ve been to both countries and a living wage was less than £50 a month and a pack of fags 15p. Once out the city people don’t have indoor toilets and the roads are unpaved!
I think you miss my point. Russian Artillery/trenches and small drone teams won’t live very long under air superiority.
Drones in the Ukraine war are dangerous but against an American military in gloves off full scale war will be like shooting rubber bands against an elephant.
The Hubris!
If you can explain to me how much use artillery or small drones would be against a country fielding f22, f35, b2 aircraft with a military budget of 816 billion dollars?
Can you explain to me how a tank squadron would move across an area that they knew was swarming with loitering munitions, in range of guided artillery positions and under constant drone surveillance?
Your stuck in ww2. Air superiority in ww3 involves dropping guided weapons along the lines of brimstone or jdam with electronic surveillance and electronic jamming.
Your guided artillery gets destroyed by a typhone at 50k feet dropping a brimstone/jdam. Your small cheap drones surveillance has given up or been destroyed by f18 growlers.
Your factories and government have to survive the b2 bearing in mind no one is prepared to switch on a radar for fear of what it attracts.
Now small sophisticated ai controlled drones left like mines littering the battle space in the 10 of thousands would make a lot of problems and turn holding the ground into a nightmare for troops.
Technology that can survive simple jamming won’t be cheap but will be hard to detect in a anti personnel role.
Make them big enough to kill a tank and they will be easy to detected by a very simple trophy style protection system that’s designed to stop rockets. allowing ai to control the tanks secondary weapons and target a slow drone carrying an RPG. Remember your watching ukraine and Russia having a fight.
11th largest economy vs 59th. Neither are well know for sophisticated electronics.
Im sorry but I can’t see any way that small drones are anything but a nuisances in ww3. Russia v ukrain yes. USA vs Russia would be the most 1 sided war in history. USA vs China will be a missile war done at huge ranges.
Obviously these are just my opinions.
Yes but we need to have enough precision guided weapons to destroy all the lower tech stuff Russian and China are mass producing. It’s no good destroying 4 or 5 tanks, 6 artillery pieces and a dozen IFVs if the enemy has hundreds of spares.
Agree Russia’s military wouldn’t last long against the US armed forces but NATO as a whole has to avoid getting sucked into the trench, minefield, drone warfare pattern seen in Ukraine. The only way to avoid that is smart munitions in adequate quantities with an industrial military bases able to match stockpile and combat demands.
How many storm shadow, tomahawk, Brimstone, Meteor, Asraam, Amraam, Spear 3, Martlett, Aster 30NT, CAAMM, sea ceptor rounds has the UK government ordered as a direct response to the rising threats from Russia , China, Iran, North Korea and Islamist terrorist organisations? Answer is none.
That’s why the Tory government are failing, too much in fighting and not enough attention to detail.
We’ve got the technology and equipment designs to beat our potential enemies. Just not enough of it to last a prolonged conflict over a few months.
Personally I don’t feel threatened by a conventional militarily threat from anyone. If only a few Nato countries turn up to a conventional war with Russia it will be a walk in the park. China will only ever be a USA problem with at best a tiny bit of help from the UK.
The biggest threat is what Putin or Xi Jinping do when they see total economic collapse or a threat to their rule?! Both of them seem like the kind of nutters that would prefer nuclear war than to lose control.
I could see Putin choosing to be the most infamous person in human history rather than go down in history as the incompetent Russian ruler that wrecked Russia.
Xi Jinping wont go nuclear but try to wreck the world economy by invading Taiwan and getting China totally isolated so he can run the country as he feels fit without outside interference.
Another way to look at it would be to ask a ukranian if he would prefer a £100,000 brimstone missile or a £500 RPG cable tied to a £500 drone!
Yes, but I think he’d prefer 100 drone RPGs to a single brimstone
Ww2 radio jamming the battle field was the norm. Afghanistan mobile phone jamming was the norm. USA in Ukraine drone jamming would be the norm.
Small cheap drones only survive the battle field due to the fact Russia and ukraine are 3rd world countries that don’t have industries capable of anything more than buying parts off the Internet and cobbling them together with cable ties.
Add air dominance to this and you have 100 drone operators flying drones within 5k of USA forces under constant air attack and electronic surveillance . If you survive long enough to launch and some how you can fly passed the jamming on your final run in on target you lose the signal for the final 5 secs of your attack run. Dropping the number of actual hits. We only see the successful hit posted online.
Not to mention shot guns and lots of clay pigeon shooting could render small drones very vulnerable when combined with an early warning radar!
You really have no clue what Russia and Ukraine are capable of technologically..
Your arrogance is the mother of defeats.
And you do? You call me arrogant for pointing out how shit Russia is. If your Russia is so good why after 2 years have you not beaten Ukraine? Everyone across the whole world has seen the level of the Russian military. It’s a joke! I’m not American but I can clearly see the deference between the USA and Russia! The US spends on its military a figure that would compare with the real Russian 2023 gdp.
Your a loser! Ner ner!
Oh sorry I just realized your wonderful Russia is failing in Ukraine to protect the ukranians feelings!
He would prefer a drone obviously.
I was as I have through all these posts been pointing out drones against USA not drones against Russia. Big difference!
So where would these drones against the USA be launched from ?