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DARPA claims drone autonomy program an undeniable success

Six tigersharks and 14 ghosts took to the sky above Yuma, Arizona. The tigers were drones specially outfitted as part of DARPA’s CODE program, or “Collaborative Operations in Denied Environment,” and the ghosts were virtual doubles of the tigersharks, following along with the tiger drones in simulation. The exercise was the capstone in a program designed to teach drone how to work together in the absence of modern communications infrastructure.

Modern drones are heavily dependent on satellites. The most obvious ways is through GPS, which has in a few decades moved from cutting edge military enabler to an integral part of modern life for the military and civilians alike. GPS enables far more complex and accurate navigation than the high error tolerances of inertial management before it, but GPS signals can be jammed or, in a truly grim scenario, the satellites in orbit could be destroyed. Besides GPS, modern military drones are mostly remotely piloted, signals relayed through permissive electromagnetic spectrum and sometimes carried by satellites in orbit.

CODE is, as the full name suggests, about operating in those denied environments, regardless of how they are denied. DARPA started this program in 2015, and has been ramping up the program for a conclusion in spring 2019.