Drones, Robotics and Swarms as a Tactical Sensor-Actuator Layer
Resilient Unmanned Systems for Persistent ISR, Rapid Strike and Attrition-Tolerant Operations
Drones, robotics and swarms address a core tactical vulnerability: the inability to sustain persistent surveillance and rapidly apply effects at scale in contested environments. When unmanned systems are insufficient in number, endurance or resilience, forces lose continuous situational awareness, open ISR gaps, and struggle to engage dispersed or fast-moving threats under compressed decision cycles. Adversaries can exploit this by saturating defenses with massed low-cost platforms, applying electronic warfare to disrupt control links, and forcing attrition that conventional manned assets cannot economically absorb. As a tactical building block under the broader effort to preserve a technological edge, this capability provides a scalable, networked layer of sensors and effectors that extends reach, increases tempo, and maintains operational effectiveness even when some elements are lost, degraded or jammed.