Want Effective Drones? Make it Competitive
ideas, and errors, come from stress. we all know this.
I’m rocking a 101.9F fever right now, so I will keep it short and do my best to make sure it makes sense.
We know that drones are already having a significant impact on the battlefield in almost every significant small and medium sized war underway today. Drones have been with us a very long time, and have been growing in importance for the last quarter-century. As we are reaching a singularity where the evolutionary may trip in to the revolutionary, it is essential that we lean forward in this area even more than we already are. More, faster. Like SpaceX is doing with Starship, “build a little, test a little, learn a lot.” Open the door for the technology to fail. Learn from it, make changes, try again. Let our nation’s tradition of accepting risk flourish, as opposed to the scoliotic, accretion-encumbered processes we are allowing to exist.
As we are seeing in the crucible of war from Ukraine to the Red Sea, scale, affordability, sophistication, 3D printing and the resulting rapid decrease in cost per unit...we cannot study the issue forever. That singularity mentioned above with the right code and ROE sequels is almost in our grasp.
Today, the USNDA announced its sponsorship of the first interservice, international U.S. Military Drone Crucible Championship (MDCC), to measure, incentivize and rapidly integrate small drone skills and capabilities across the armed services. The MDCC will develop camaraderie across services and allied partners, and exchange lessons learned from the rapidly growing field of emerging drone technology to hone the skills of operational forces.
The U.S. Marines are the first service to launch an official U.S. Military Competitive Drone Team, co-led by Training Command and the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, as part of a joint initiative to challenge and enhance the skills of warfighters through interservice competition within the operating forces and neighboring services.
USNDA is the United States National Drone Association, BTW.
That is how it is done.
Just like we should have done with the X-47B a dozen years ago—give ideas and platforms to the fleet. Give them funding and top-cover, the freedom to fail…and let them report back.
"Just as early aviation races advanced our understanding of manned flight, drone racing will accelerate the integration and advancement of drones across all aspects of Marine Corps warfighting. As we incorporate FPV and small drone capabilities, we remain committed to demonstrating the highest standards of professional excellence in the Military Drone Crucible Championship. The technical expertise of the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab, combined with the competitive experience of the Marine Corps Shooting Team, in establishing the Marine Corps Attack Drone Team for the championship is just another step in ensuring that our Corps remains more ready than ever to meet current and future challenges," said Major General Anthony Henderson, Commanding General, Training Command, and Brigadier General Simon Doran, Commanding General, Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, in a joint statement.
Other participating DoD organizations include the Air Force Research Laboratory, Office of Naval Research, and U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command.
Exactly. Come on everyone—you’re not going to let a bunch of Marines steal a march on you, are you?
Judging by the Russo-Ukraine War, anything you are doing today is already on the brink of obsolete. The pace of change is frenetic.
Time to play catch-up to the Houthi's and Azeries. The Second Nagorno-Karabakh War was 5 years ago.