Small unmanned aircraft are already transforming warfare, with hand-launched scouts like the Raven and lethal tactical drones like Switchblade already in use by US forces. A bigger revolution is on the way, as swarming software allows a single operator to control large numbers of drones, and smartphone technology means they can be built for $1,000 each -- by anybody, not just governments. This book looks at the history of drone warfare, the rise of big drones like the Predator and how they are being eclipsed by smaller unmanned aircraft. And how the future is being shaped by smartphone technology, swarm software, miniaturised munitions and energy-harvesting that allows small drones to fly forever. It also looks at why current air defence cannot stop the swarms, and what drone swarms will mean for the balance of power and future wars. This is the world of Swarm Troopers
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From the former vice president and #1 New York Times bestselling author comes An Inconvenient Truth for everything—a frank and clear-eyed assessment of six critical drivers of global change in the decades to come. Ours is a time of revolutionary change that has no precedent in history. With the same passion he brought to the challenge of climate change, and with his decades of experience on the front lines of global policy, Al Gore surveys our planet’s beclouded horizon and offers a sober, learned, and ultimately hopeful forecast in the visionary tradition of Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock and John Naisbitt’s Megatrends. In The Future, Gore identifies the emerging forces that are reshaping our world: • Ever-increasing economic globalization has led to the emergence of what he labels “Earth Inc.”—an integrated holistic entity with a new and different relationship to capital, labor, consumer markets, and national governments than in the past. • The worldwide digital communications, Internet, and computer revolutions have led to the emergence of “the Global Mind,” which links the thoughts and feelings of billions of people and connects intelligent machines, robots, ubiquitous sensors, and databases. • The balance of global political, economic, and military power is shifting more profoundly than at any time in the last five hundred years—from a U.S.-centered system to one with multiple emerging centers of power, from nation-states to private actors, and from political systems to markets. • A deeply flawed economic compass is leading us to unsustainable growth in consumption, pollution flows, and depletion of the planet’s strategic resources of topsoil, freshwater, and living species. • Genomic, biotechnology, neuroscience, and life sciences revolutions are radically transforming the fields of medicine, agriculture, and molecular science—and are putting control of evolution in human hands. • There has been a radical disruption of the relationship between human beings and the earth’s ecosystems, along with the beginning of a revolutionary transformation of energy systems, agriculture, transportation, and construction worldwide. From his earliest days in public life, Al Gore has been warning us of the promise and peril of emergent truths—no matter how “inconvenient” they may seem to be. As absorbing as it is visionary, The Future is a map of the world to come, from a man who has looked ahead before and been proven all too right. Praise for The Future “Magisterial . . . The passion is unmistakable. So is the knowledge. Practically every page offers an illumination.”—Bloomberg “In The Future . . . Gore takes on a subject whose scale matches that of his achievements and ambition.”—The New York Times Book Review “Historically grounded . . . Gore’s strengths lie in his passion for the subject and in his ability to take the long view by putting current events and trends in historical context.”—Publishers Weekly “Provocative, smart, densely argued . . . a tour de force of Big Picture thinking.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “A luminously intelligent analysis that is packed with arresting ideas and facts.”—The Guardian
Over 3,800 total pages ... Just a sample of the studies / publications included: Drone Swarms Terrorist and Insurgent Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Use, Potentials, and Military Implications Countering A2/AD with Swarming Stunning Swarms: An Airpower Alternative to Collateral Damage Ideal Directed-Energy System To Defeat Small Unmanned Aircraft System Swarms Break the Kill Chain, not the Budget: How to Avoid U.S. Strategic Retrenchment Gyges Effect: An Ethical Critique of Lethal Remotely Piloted Aircraft Human Robotic Swarm Interaction Using an Artificial Physics Approach Swarming UAS II Swarming Unmanned Aircraft Systems Communication Free Robot Swarming UAV Swarm Attack: Protection System Alternatives for Destroyers Confidential and Authenticated Communications in a Large Fixed-Wing UAV Swarm UAV Swarm Behavior Modeling for Early Exposure of Failure Modes Optimized Landing of Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Swarms Mini, Micro, and Swarming Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: A Baseline Study UAV Swarm Operational Risk Assessment System SmartSwarms: Distributed UAVs that Think Command and Control Autonomous UxV's UAV Swarm Tactics: An Agent-Based Simulation and Markov Process Analysis A Novel Communications Protocol Using Geographic Routing for Swarming UAVs Performing a Search Mission Accelerating the Kill Chain via Future Unmanned Aircraft Evolution of Control Programs for a Swarm of Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles AFIT UAV Swarm Mission Planning and Simulation System A Genetic Algorithm for UAV Routing Integrated with a Parallel Swarm Simulation Applying Cooperative Localization to Swarm UAVS Using an Extended Kalman Filter A Secure Group Communication Architecture for a Swarm of Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Braving the Swarm: Lowering Anticipated Group Bias in Integrated Fire/Police Units Facing Paramilitary Terrorism Distributed Beamforming in a Swarm UAV Network Integrating UAS Flocking Operations with Formation Drag Reduction Tracking with a Cooperatively Controlled Swarm of GMTI Equipped UAVS Using Agent-Based Modeling to Evaluate UAS Behaviors in a Target-Rich Environment Experimental Analysis of Integration of Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Naval Special Warfare Operations Forces Target Acquisition Involving Multiple Unmanned Air Vehicles: Interfaces for Small Unmanned Air Systems (ISUS) Program Tools for the Conceptual Design and Engineering Analysis of Micro Air Vehicles Architectural Considerations for Single Operator Management of Multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
"This path-breaking study is about how ordinary people are gaining the means to be extraordinarily lethal. States are also concentrating their technological power, but their gains lag behind a shift in relative capacity that is already disrupting the role of conventional armed forces. The dispersal of emerging technologies such as roboics, cyber weapons, 3-D printing, autonomous systems, and various forms of artificial intelligence is widening popular access to unprecedented destructive power. Based on hard lessons from previous waves of lethal technology such as dynamite and the assault rifle, the book explains what the future may hold and how we should respond"-
In the battle for the streets of Mosul in Iraq, drones in the hands of ISIS terrorists made life hell for the Iraq army and civilians. Today, defense companies are racing to develop the lasers, microwave weapons, and technology necessary for confronting the next drone threat. Seth J. Frantzman takes the reader from the midnight exercises with Israel’s elite drone warriors, to the CIA headquarters where new drone technology was once adopted in the 1990s to hunt Osama bin Laden. This rapidly expanding technology could be used to target nuclear power plants and pose a threat to civilian airports. In the Middle East, the US used a drone to kill Iranian arch-terrorist Qasem Soleimani, a key Iranian commander. Drones are transforming the battlefield from Syria to Libya and Yemen. For militaries and security agencies—the main users of expensive drones—the UAV market is expanding as well; there were more than 20,000 military drones in use by 2020. Once the province of only a few militaries, drones now being built in Turkey, China, Russia, and smaller countries like Taiwan may be joining the military drone market. It’s big business, too—$100 billion will be spent over the next decade on drones. Militaries may soon be spending more on drones than tanks, much as navies transitioned away from giant vulnerable battleships to more agile ships. The future wars will be fought with drones and won by whoever has the most sophisticated technology.
"For someone interested in practical present day robotics it’s a treasure trove. A book-sized Top Trumps rove across the technical domain, with each section containing a photo of the precise robot, an overview of its main components and some context for its aims and purposes." - Electronics Weekly Robots exist all around us. They populate our factories, assist our surgeons and have become an integral part of our armed forces. But they are not just working behind the scenes – impressive inventions such as free-roaming hoovers takecare of your household chores and the iPal is set to become your closest friend. David Hambling reveals the groundbreaking machines – once the realm of science fiction – that are by our sides today, and those that are set to change the future forever. From the Reem robocop that polices the streets of Dubai to the drones that deliver our parcels and even the uncanny Gemonoid Hi-4 built to look just like you, here are fifty unique robots that reach into every aspect of our daily lives. We:Robot examines why robots have become embedded in our culture, how they work and what they tell us about our society and its future.
"...a useful addition to the literature of the changing character of war. Its scoping and focus, and its application of the identified disruptors to current challenges offer immediate insights for today’s commanders and defence policymakers." — The Wavell Room The nature of war is constant change. We live in an era of exponential technological acceleration which is transforming how wars are waged. Today, the battlespace is transparent; multi-domain sensors can see anything, and long-range precision fire can target everything that is observed. Autonomous weapons can be unleashed into the battlespace and attack any target from above, hitting the weakest point of tanks and armored vehicles. The velocity of war is hyper-fast. Battle shock is the operational, informational, and organizational paralysis induced by the rapid convergence of key disrupters in the battlespace. It occurs when the tempo of operations is so fast, and the means so overwhelming, that the enemy cannot think, decide, or act in time. Hit with too many attacks in multiple domains, all occurring simultaneously, the enemy is paralyzed. In short, the keys to decisive victory in war is to generate battle shock. Imagine a peer fight against Communist China, a new war in Europe against a resurgent Russia, or a conflict against Iran in the Middle East. How can our forces survive an enemy-first strike in these circumstances? Can we adapt to the ever-accelerating tempo of war? Will our forces be able to mask from enemy sensors? How will leaders execute command and control in a degraded communications environment? Will our command posts survive? Will our commanders see and understand what is happening in order to plan, decide, and act in real time? This book addresses these tough questions and more.
A novel of military science fiction telling the story of Earth's annexation by an alien empire. Long considered a primitive people on a backwater planet, humanity finds itself in the middle of a war, and faced with extinction.
