Cooperative Threat Engagement Using Drone Swarms

The ability of multiple manned and unmanned aircraft systems to cooperatively engage and disable an aerial threat plays a decisive role in modern warfare scenarios. In this paper, we apply key methods to enable the so-called cooperative threat engagement capability among multiple networked agents, e.g., a swarm of drones, with combat and communication capabilities. In particular, this research combines AI-based decision-making and control techniques for a swarm of loyal wingman drones to coordinate efficient defense actions in a cooperative and autonomous manner. We apply these concepts in a defense scenario that is modeled to analyze the loyal wingman concept, which we consider an interesting testbed for cooperative decision-making and low-level control techniques. The investigated methods were implemented in a realistic 3D UAV simulator for demonstration and evaluation.