Swarm squadrons of drones to be deployed by British armed forces.

"Swarm squadrons" of drones are to be deployed by British armed forces to overwhelm enemy air defences, has said Gavin Williamson, the defence secretary. The specially-adapted drones could be in operation by the end of 2019.

Drone swarms are regularly mentioned as a key capability for future conflicts (Picture source : DARPA)

Several manufacturers are working on these issues like Airbus. In October 2018, the European group performed a demonstration involving five DO-DT25 target drones. In the United States, Darpa launched the Gremlins program.

The use of drone swarms is regularly mentioned as a key capability for future conflicts. For example, French and German plan for the use of drones networked under the FCAS (Future Combat Air System) program. None of these systems are officially operational at this time. Gavin Williamson did not say whether the UK was planning to acquire a foreign system or have the local industry work on this issue.

At the last Farnborough show, the British Ministry of Defense presented the Tempest program to prepare for the future of British Combat Aviation (Involving, BAE Systems, Rolls Royce, Leonardo and MBDA). But this program seems to focus mainly on the development of a new combat aircraft rather than on the design of a system of systems including drones.