Networked Air Force Bombs Share-Data Together in Flight, Adjust Course

Video: Army Research Lab Scientist Describes Human Brain as Sensor Connecting With AI

By Kris Osborn – Warrior Maven

(Washington D.C.) Two Air Force F-16 fired Small Diameter Bombs were able to share threat data with one another while in flight to a target using an emerging kind of “collaborative” weapons coordination, enabling the bombs toadjust trajectoryand change course in response to identifying enemy guidance “jamming” signals.

The developmental program, called Golden Horde, continues to show great promise with an ability to use software-defined radio signals to exchange data in flight enabled by computer processors preloaded with advanced algorithms. While the test earlier this year was successful in terms of an ability to demonstrate initial capabilities for collaborative in-flight weapons targeting, Air Force Research Laboratory Commander Brig. Gen. Heather Pringle explained that there was still much to learn and refine regarding the networking of weapons.

“There are a lot of questions that we don’t have answered about networking and, for example, what types of radio technologies are going to work best, depending on distance of flight? Or, how we best build the algorithms to work together?” Pringle said.

As is often the case with highly challenged and technologically complex modern warfare, gathering massive amounts of information to share in real time is of great value .. yet the data needs to be organized, distilled, analyzed and properly transmitted in small, useful increments. This is part of the challenge, it appears, when it comes to architecting sensor-enabled weapons themselves to gather and share data in route to an attack target. Therefore, what may be of greatest significance is not simply that information can be shared, but rather what kind of information and its relative degree of pressing relevance.

“You can have all the weapons sharing the same information. In the past, we’ve looked at playbooks that were trying to get to more advanced iterations of artificial intelligence and autonomy so that they’re making decisions on the fly. What kinds of information are they sharing? Are they sharing? What’s the minimum amount? What’s the furthest they can take it, you know, in all those iterations in between?” Pringle asked.

At the same time, the collaborative weaponsexperiment is showing great promise, perhaps in large measure because AI-capable algorithms can be integrated into small form factors such as the Small Diameter Bombs that were used. Advanced sensors built into the weapons themselves can surveil the surrounding combat environment and, using AI, bounce specific incoming data off of a vast database of known, catalogued information to make instant identifications, perform analyses and recommend optimal courses of action.For instance, perhaps one sensor built into one Small Diameter bomb picks up the electronic signature of an enemy “jammer” and is then able to transmit organized and identified data to the other bomb in flight, thus enabling it to change course and or adjust its flight trajectory and targeting accordingly.