The U.S. military is building a drone army

The United States witnessed the second of the six exercise stages of the OFFSET programme. It was intended to practice the tactics of simultaneous use of large numbers of drones to support ground forces.

The DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) has successfully completed the second phase of the OFFSET multi-year programme under which, the organization is going to practice a new combat tactic involving the use of up to 250 reconnaissance drones.

The military practised combat operations in a densely built-up city with unmanned aerial vehicles monitoring the territory. This enabled the exercise participants to learn about the situation in the neighboring streets without leaving the safe point. Moreover, each location was simultaneously viewed from several positions. 

The drones have proven to be extremely efficient which is encouraging, but also concern-raising, as they can be used by a hypothetical adversary as well. With this in mind, the DARPA staff adjusted the programme immediately after the first stage of the exercises, adding a practical one aimed at destroying enemy drones.