When the Radios are Jammed, Fight Like Ants: Swarms of Soldiers on the Future Battlefield
Justin Lynch | February 26, 2019
Combat forces’ movement has evolved throughout history—from melee to mass to the maneuver concepts that are enshrined in contemporary modern military doctrine. On the modern battlefield, however, the US military needs to prepare to fight without the assured communications it has relied on for the last eighty years. What comes next may be another fundamental change: swarming.
What is Swarming?
John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt first formalized swarm tactics in 2005, when they defined swarming as “engaging an adversary from all directions simultaneously either with fire or in force.†Sean Edwards built on their foundation, adding that swarms act in four stages: locate, converge, attack, and disperse. All three agree that swarming is an information-intensive form of maneuver.
A key advantage swarms bring to the battlefield is that they can self-organize without using electronic communications if they are enabled by stigmergy and rules-based decision making. Stigmergy—a mechanism used by ants and a range of other organisms—is indirect coordination through environmental cues, and rules-based decision making is the use of a predetermined set of responses for specific situations. Both concepts are borrowed from biology and swarm-based artificial intelligence and optimization programs.
https://mwi.usma.edu/radios-jammed-fight-like-ants-swarms-soldiers-future-battlefield/
