Timothy Grayson, director of DARPAâs Strategic Technology Office, said the concept mainly aims to integrate a complex set of weapons, such as manned-unmanned teaming, to overwhelm adversaries, create multiple dilemmas and âget inside and disrupt its leadersâ decision-making processes.â
In the system-of-systems we use today, Grayson said, each piece is designed to fit only one way and this process of putting together a jigsaw puzzle can be challenging. While mosaic warfare still has a specific degree of order, individual pieces can be used in more than one way to make elaborate works of art, he explained. Grayson added he wants to bring the same flexibility and adaptability to other complex systems.
Navy veteran Scott Swift, former U.S. Pacific Fleet commander, noted such a concept would require communication features enabling each weapon to continue operating despite a poor connection.
âWindows of communication will open and close rapidly in times that are not under the control of the commander,â he said.
DARPA officials said the agency is already working on software to provide secure, seamless communications to weapon systems that would support mosaic warfare.
Meanwhile, the Navy, Air Force and Army are also exploring a similar concept to combine multiple assets and weapon systems, such as ships, reconnaissance aircraft and unmanned underwater and surface vehicles, to enhance operations and the safety of troops in the field.