{"id":40652,"date":"2019-10-22T18:29:12","date_gmt":"2019-10-22T18:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2019\/10\/22\/europeans-propose-siccing-self-learning-drone-swarms-on-air-defenses\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:19:05","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:19:05","slug":"europeans-propose-siccing-self-learning-drone-swarms-on-air-defenses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/global\/europe\/2019\/10\/22\/europeans-propose-siccing-self-learning-drone-swarms-on-air-defenses\/","title":{"rendered":"Europeans propose siccing self-learning drone swarms on air defenses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

COLOGNE, Germany \u2014 A European consortium has pitched the idea of grooming intelligent drone swarms to confuse, disable and destroy enemy air defenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proposal is part of the Preparatory Action on Defence Research effort by the European Union to improve collaboration on among member states. Under the heading \u201cEmerging Game Changers,\u201d EU officials asked companies earlier this year to submit ideas for \u201cpromising breakthrough technologies\u201d in the field of artificial intelligence for defense applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea behind \u201cSEAD Swarm\u201d is to create the necessary algorithms that would enable a mass of aerial drones to inspect the characteristics of air defense systems, distribute the information within the swarm and derive a plan of attack against weak points. Actions taken could include blinding radar sensors, overwhelming anti-aircraft fire with kamikaze-type tactics, or attacking sites with explosive or electronic-warfare payloads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The acronym SEAD is short for \u201csuppression of enemy air defenses,\u201d military platforms that often expose pilots of manned aircraft to significant risk of getting shot down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proposed project comes in the wake of Finland designating advances in AI a key objective for its six-month term leading the Council of the European Union. The idea is backed by a consortium of 12 private companies, national research institutions and universities from six countries, with Finnish company Insta as the lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A decision from European decision-makers on the award of an approximately $2 million grant to start the project is expected in the next few months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consortium officials stress that nothing would be built during the initial phase of the project. Instead, the idea is to incubate the necessary \u201cswarm logic\u201d and learning algorithms in a simulation environment, where scenarios can be gamed out and quickly adapted, Ari Kosonen, a senior systems engineer at Insta, told Defense News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Letting the drone swarm and air defense systems battle it out in a controlled cyberspace environment would yield patterns of problem-solving that can continuously improve both the attackers\u2019 and the defenders\u2019 performance, Kosonen said. In addition, thinking through the idea on a purely theoretical level would allow proper consideration for ethical and legal questions that arise whenever AI is weaponized, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If adopted by the EU, the participating countries of Finland, Germany, Slovenia, Estonia, the Netherlands and Austria would detail military officials to an advisory board to help ensure the planned simulations reflect real-world combat situations.<\/p>\n\n\n\t