[LINK] Small drones to be the future of networked warfare, but buying them isn't easy

[Tom Worthington]

On 1/1/21 10:42 pm, Stephen Loosley wrote:

> ... small drones to be the future of networked warfare... 
> https://www.fedscoop.com/pentagon-small-drones-networked-warfare

Yes, air and underwater drones featured in projects at the
Navy Warfare Innovation Workshop 2020 I helped with in December:
https://blog.highereducationwhisperer.com/2020/12/navy-warfare-innovation-workshop-2020.html

> ... drones, can collect data at tactical levels, buzzing around 
> adversaries ...

Then you have swarms of drones to counter the drones.

> ... has struggled to field drones easily across the enterprise.

It is not difficult to find companies building drones. One is Carbonix,
a few km from where I am in Sydney: https://carbonix.com.au/

> ... existing marketplace has matured ...

This is a far from mature market. There is plenty of room for innovation.

> ... single trusted and cyber-secure option ...

Like the early days of any new technology, there is no single trusted
option. Like other customers, the military has to place some bets on
what might work by buying products from fledgling companies.

Some drone companies will succeed, most will not. No one knows which.

In 1999 I visited Aerosonde who were making drones in Melbourne, as a 
spinoff of research by the Australian Bureau of Methodology. 
http://www.tomw.net.au/travel/ara/

They were acquired by US aerospace company Textron Systems in 2007. 
https://www.textronsystems.com/textron-systems-australia


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Tom Worthington, MEd FHEA FACS CP IP3P http://www.tomw.net.au
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Honorary Lecturer, Computer Science, Australian National University
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