Pero a medida que el Ej\u00e9rcito juega con la tecnolog\u00eda emergente, los l\u00edderes saben que, el enjambre de drones conlleva una serie de desaf\u00edos.\u00a0Se est\u00e1\u00a0trabajando para comprender cu\u00e1ntos ALE\u00a0(Air-Launched Effects)\u00a0quiere el Ej\u00e9rcito volando en enjambre simult\u00e1neamente, cu\u00e1ntos necesitan coordinarse entre s\u00ed los ALE, con qu\u00e9 sistemas se emparejan los ALE, c\u00f3mo los soldados toman decisiones sobre “qu\u00e9 buscar y cu\u00e1ndo”. ir tras \u00e9l\u201d y c\u00f3mo eso necesita ser coordinado. Estos y otros interrogantes se presentan, lo cual significa mucho trabajo para resolverlos antes de que puedan ser utilizados.<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON: In the middle of the Utah desert, the US Army plans to test the efficacy of\u00a0swarms of mini-drones<\/a>\u00a0that the service hopes will provide a ISR, targeting and battle damage assessments.<\/p>\n But as the Army tinkers with the emerging technology at the\u00a0ongoing EDGE<\/a>\u00a022 experiment at Dugway Proving Ground, service leaders already know one thing: With the\u00a0swarm of drones<\/a>\u00a0comes a flock of challenges.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s just waveforms and how they\u2019re transmitted through the sky, and what\u2019s in the sky at the time, and what kind of things the Lord has thrown into the sky when you\u2019re wanting to do this, with the amount of power that you maybe have available to you \u2014 that has a lot of constraints and a lot of variability,\u201d Jeffrey Langhout, director of the Aviation and Missile Center at the Army\u2019s Combat Capabilities Development Command, said in an early April interview with Breaking Defense at Army Aviation Association of America conference in Nashville, Tenn.<\/p>\n The mini drones, formally called Air-Launched Effects by the service, are just a few feet long and can carry a range of payloads from reconnaissance to explosives. But as the Army plans to use ALEs on the battlefield, it first needs to learn how a swarm of drones interact with each other to help shape doctrine and battlefield use cases.<\/p>\n Langhout said that the so-called intelligent teaming work with ALEs is one of his organization\u2019s top priorities. The service is working to understand how many ALEs the Army wants in the sky at a time, how much the ALEs need to coordinate with each other, what systems ALEs are paired with, how soldiers make decisions of \u201cwhat to go after and when to go after it\u201d and how that needs to be coordinated.<\/p>\n \u201cAll of that is just a lot of complicated work,\u201d Langhout said.<\/p>\n Air-Launched Effects will play a crucial role on the future battlefield because they will increase soldiers\u2019 situational awareness, and be another data-providing sensor that feeds into Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2<\/a>), the Pentagon\u2019s future way of war in which sensors are connected to the best shooter.<\/p>\n Senior Army aviation leaders told reporters in Nashville that the swarm would incorporate about 30 mini drones that would demonstrate a range of classified and unclassified behaviors.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve had some good success early on,\u201d Langhout said ahead of EDGE, which started April 25. \u201cBut this is hard stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n The Army isn\u2019t expected to reveal the results of the experiments until EDGE is completed later this month.<\/p>\n Army Eyes Electric Vehicle Take-Off And Landing (eVTOL)<\/strong><\/p>\n Meanwhile, the Army is also in an \u201cearly adoption phase\u201d for electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL), Langhout said, though they\u2019re taking a measured approach.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s so much energy being put into it [in] the commercial sector, where we\u2019re actually putting a lot of time [is] into making sure we understand what our commercial partners are doing so we can be more complimentary about the work that we want to do,\u201d Langhout said.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, the Army\u00a0awarded<\/a>\u00a0a small contract to eVTOL company Beta Technologies to support flight testing for its manned electric platform. Through that work, the Army wants to understand \u201chow big the gaps are,\u201d according to Langhout.<\/p>\n \u201cAs an Army, you know, there\u2019s a lot we have to do if we\u2019re going to put a soldier in it, or even depending on what we\u2019re going to use it for an unmanned category \u2014 and that\u2019s a lot of air worthiness work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Uses for eVTOL are \u201cpotentially emerging,\u201d including contested logistics. Logistics is a burgeoning area the Army is exploring for advanced technologies, including the\u00a0DARPA-led autonomous Black Hawk program<\/a>.<\/p>\n For eVTOL, \u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019re ready to say there is a hard and fast requirement today that says we want to do X and X,\u201d Langhout said.<\/p>\n