Pentagon Acquires Combat Proven ‘Multi-Dimensional Drone Swarm’

A contract has been awarded for the supply of ‘combat proven’ swarming drone capability

XTEND

The Pentagon has just awarded a contract for ‘multi-dimensional drone swarm’ from XTEND Reality Inc which includes multiple types of drone flown by AI pilots working together under the control of a single human operator.

XTEND have supplied equipment to U.S. forces before, with hardware now produced in their new Florida facility, but the contract for ‘Affordable Close Quarter Modular Effects FPV Drone Kits’ adds a new level of sophistication.

In particular, the technology incorporates the experience of drone warfare in Gaza where the IDF has made wide use of XTEND drones in combat operations, and hard lessons have been assimilated rapidly.

“We learned more in the first week following October 7th than we had in the previous four years,” Aviv Shapira, CEO and Co-Founder of Xtend, told me.

Combat Experience Drove AI Pilots And Drone Nests

Shapira says they quickly discovered that there was little opportunity to train soldiers on the use of new drones, especially in a force composed largely of reservists. This was solved with drones which essentially fly themselves, with what Shapira calls an AI pilot. This flies the drone autonomously, planning the flight path and avoiding obstacles. The operator does not require piloting skills. Anyone can use the system out of the box in fifteen minutes and hit targets, without the weeks-long training processes normally required. The idea is that this turns every operator into an FPV ace.

The AI pilot also solves the problem of latency, the communications lag between drone and operator, so drones can be flow via satellite and other long-distance communication. The drones also have a number of AI-enabled smart behaviors for tasks like searching, providing what is described as “battle-proven performance.”

“Drones are just the physical tools,” says Shapira. “The software XOS [XTEND’s drone operating system], the AI pilots, the applications – these are the future.”

The developers also discovered early on that soldiers were overloaded with gear and could not easily carry all the drones, batteries, drone munitions and other equipment they wanted as well as well.

The solution to this is remote operation. Instead of troops carrying and launching the drones from forward positions as we see in Ukraine, the drones operate remotely from Nests. A Nest may be a mobile unit carried by a personnel carrier or uncrewed ground vehicle, a robot boat or a helicopter or other aircraft including drones. Nests may also be static, pre-positioned units with automated systems to change batteries and attach munitions to drones. There are many other such concepts, but XTEND have extensive real-world experience of using Nests.

“We put the emphasis on remote applications,” says Shapira. “We have the biggest advantage where the drones are operated far from people.”

With this setup, Shapira says, “distance is not an issue,” a great benefit to the Special Forces teams who will operate the new drones.

Mission Control

The drones are being supplied to the Special Operations / Low-Intensity Conflict Capability Development & Innovation Directorate.

In a typical mission the operator would use a team of drones to investigate a building occupied by terrorists. The operator views the building from a distance with the camera on a Honey Badger drone, a large multipurpose type which can also act as a carrier, while other drones remain in holding patterns or wait for the order to launch.

The software automatically identifies items of interest including vehicles, people and doors and windows in buildings. The operator identifies a suitable entry point such as a window in an upper floor and clicks on it. A Scorpio strike drone with a breaching charge automatically homes in on the window and creates an entry.

A small Xtender drone, optimized for flying indoors, then enters via the breach, and the operator switches to the Xtenders viewpoint, directing it as it goes through the building looking for terrorists. This sort of flying is challenging for a human pilot, but the AI pilot flying the drone can easily negotiate indoor spaces without crashing. Other drones watching the exits will alert the operator to any activity, allowing them to focus on the main task.

If the Xtender makes contact, the operator can call on more drones to investigate or strike as appropriate.

The use of multiple different types of drones able to carry out a range of different tasks is what makes the group ‘multi-dimensional’. The mission may also include ground robots and other types of flying drone. Shapira says that while term swarm has somewhat negative connotations, ‘drone swarm’ may be more descriptive than the bland ‘drone team.’

Unjammable Drones

While the software is central to XTENDs work, the new contract also includers some significant hardware not found on other drones.

One is dual connectivity and can be operated either by radio or via a fiber optic cable. Fiber drones, now so heavily used in Ukraine that in places the landscape is strewn with fiber optic cables , cannot be jammed and so are immune to electronic warfare. They can also operate underground and in tunnels where radio waves cannot reach.

The downside is that the fiber reel adds weight, and the fiber link imposes some restrictions on maneuverability, so XTENDs system makes it optional.

“At launch the operator can decide whether to connect with fiber or not,” says Shapira.

The other piece of hardware is an Electronic Safe and Arm Device (ESAD) which gives a high level of safety on the munitions carried. In Ukraine, many operators are killed in accidents with improvised munitions. Aviva says the high-voltage ESAD certification, which took two years in the U.S., makes their system unique.

The drones can carry a variety of swappable munitions, including anti-personnel, anti-vehicle, breaching charges, flash-bang ‘distraction devices,’ non-lethal rounds and inert training warheads.

Autonomous Drones, But Humans In Control

The new system is well ahead of earlier drones thanks to advances in AI.

“Smaller processors have helped us make a huge leap in autonomy. Now we can tell a swarm to go to these co-ordinates, find a target that looks like a rocket launcher, for example, and report back. That was not possible two years ago,” says Shapira.

XTENDs drones have now moved from Level 2 autonomy, where the drone has a limited autopilot, to Level 4 where the swarm can carry out entire missions on its own. Further advances in processors by suppliers like NVIDIA will bring increasing capability to smaller drones at lower cost. On the software development side, XTEND works with ten supplier companies producing advanced AI software for their systems. These are adding new and more sophisticated behaviors for combat missions in response to user demands.

But this is all in the service of the operator controlling the swarm. While the operator may not be piloting individual drones, they are still very much in control of the mission.

“A human is always in the loop in order to supervise the system,” says Shapira.