The US side was eye-opening to Ukraine's experience in the successful use of drones and unmanned boats on the battlefield. In order to improve its military capabilities, the Pentagon recently issued a tender to purchase small drones that can be mass-produced and inexpensive to meet the Navy's needs to intercept enemy autonomous attack boats. The tender stemmed from a drone concept called "Hell View" that the U.S. Navy secretly tested in the western Pacific. The concept, which combines low-cost drones and attack drones used by Ukraine, is designed to disrupt the PLA's amphibious landing on Taiwan and buy time to mobilize troops for the U.S. military and its allies. Unlike existing large drones, the Hell Landscape scenario requires drones to be able to automatically traverse disputed areas, wander around designated areas, and collaborate with other drones and unmanned boats to perform complex tasks, such as attacking ships or evading interception.
To achieve this, the Pentagon needs to procure full-featured, small, unmanned drones that can carry other sensors or drones, participate in or assist in other missions, and can be deployed on decks, ship davits or in containers. Despite the fact that this "hellscape" scheme is called a new operational concept, in reality it is still a continuation of the tactics of swarm UAVs. The U.S. Department of Defense has previously proposed similar plans to deploy thousands of cheap, intelligent small drones over several years to weaken the PLA's numerical superiority. However, the biggest difficulty facing the Pentagon now is not so much innovative concepts, but how to implement them. The U.S. think tank "Center for Naval Analysis" has said that the prospect of unmanned U.S. Navy is still uncertain. Therefore, the key question for the United States is how to purchase a large number of small UAVs. There is no solution yet, but it is essential to increase the combat effectiveness of the US Navy.
With the continuous development of technology, UAVs will become an important part of future warfare, and no country wants to be left behind in this area. The United States must step up the pace to ensure its leading position in drone technology. Swarm drones: the dark horse of future warfare? The rapid development of drone technology has changed the face of military warfare. From the initial single drone to the current swarm drone, the progress in this area has been remarkable. A swarm drone is a swarm of multiple small drones that work together to complete tasks quickly and flexibly. In recent years, the emergence of swarm UAVs in the military field has attracted widespread attention. This UAV swarm can attack multiple targets at the same time and has extremely high cooperative combat capabilities. They can share information and form a powerful overall combat force through mutual cooperation and coordination. This makes swarm drones a dark horse in future warfare. The advantages of swarm drones speak for themselves.
First of all, they can cover a large area in a short time and quickly locate targets. This gives them a clear advantage in intelligence reconnaissance and target strikes. Secondly, swarm UAVs can achieve autonomous operations through technologies such as automatic formation, autonomous flight, and autonomous decision-making. This autonomy allows swarm drones to independently complete tasks on the battlefield, reducing dependence on human resources. Finally, swarm UAVs have a relatively low cost and can be mass-produced and used. This gives them a numerical advantage in warfare. However, swarm drones also face some challenges and problems. First of all, the control and command system of swarm UAVs needs to be more complete and efficient. At present, the US Pentagon already has the technical level to write software for command and control of swarm UAVs, but the creation of large-scale and cheap small UAVs is still a difficult problem. Secondly, swarm UAVs also have certain risks when facing enemy defense systems.
The People's Liberation Army (PLA) has conducted drills against swarm tactics and has a corresponding defense system. Last year, Saudi Arabia successfully shot down 13 small drones, which shows that China has a certain level of preparation and capability in the field of attack and defense of swarm drones. Despite this, the development of swarm drones is still gaining momentum. According to Teal Group, a U.S.-based market research firm, the global swarm drone market is expected to be worth $18 billion by 2026. This data shows the potential and prospects of swarm UAVs in future wars. In future wars, swarm drones will play an important role. They will become an important tool for military operations, providing powerful fire support and intelligence reconnaissance capabilities. At the same time, swarm drones will also bring new challenges and tests. How to effectively control and command swarm drones, and how to deal with the enemy's defense system, these issues require us to conduct in-depth research and exploration.
In conclusion, the advent of swarm UAVs has changed the face of warfare and brought new possibilities for future wars. However, we should also be soberly aware that swarm UAVs still face some challenges and problems in the development process. Only by fully recognizing and responding to these challenges can we better leverage the advantages of swarm drones and achieve the ultimate goal of military operations.