Military drone tech will let one person control 130-drone swarm at once


The overkill of military technology is exacerbated everyday. In recent months, militaries have pushed research into everything from lock-on rifles to anti-aging pills. In a new development, military drone tech appears to be getting expanded, moving from single drone strikes to massive swarms.

Raytheon military drone tech results in drone swarms

Announced by intelligence and space tech company Raytheon, the defence contractor was selected by The Pentagon to enhance drone tech. Partnering with DARPA, Raytheon’s drone enhancements will significantly overhaul the way drones are used by the military.

Raytheon’s OFFSET  — Offensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics — will allow a single user to fly a horde of horrifying weapons. Instead of a user only being able to control a single device, drone swarms can be made up of 130 devices all manipulated simultaneously.

The defence contractor claims that its combination of hardware and software makes controlling swarms easy. Raytheon claims that an operator will only need “minimal training” to control an army of devices.

“Controlling a drone swarm changes the way an operator or group of operators think about the drones,” principal investigator Shane Clark said. “Takeaways from this exercise help inform us of the inflection points between utility and manageability.”

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How are the drones controlled?

Raytheon claims that the enhanced military drone tech will be controlled via a virtual reality interface. In current drone tech, FPV virtual reality headsets are combined with joystick controllers to maneuverer the vehicles.

The defence contractor’s VR tech will be more advanced. Not only will the operator be able to assume the PoV of each individual drone, but also survey VR environments of mission locations to plan out attacks.

The idea of massive unmanned military drone swarms is horrifying to picture, and a step towards war automation. However, as sad as it is, this technology is, it’s just expected at this point.

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