The Special Operations Command has partnered with the Defense Department‘s Strategic Capabilities Office to establish an organization dedicated to the advancement of drone technologies, National Defense Magazine reported Tuesday.James Geurts, acquisition executive at USSOCOM, told National Defense Magazine that the DRONEWERX outfit will explore the use of artificial intelligence, commercial drone technology, machine learning and swarm technologies to develop combat platforms in the near term.
He added the new organization will experiment with drone technologies in a push to further understand the threat of enemy unmanned systems, according to the publication.
DRONEWERX is modeled after USSOCOM’s SOFWERX program that works to provide opportunities for nontraditional partners in academia and industry to perform experimentation and prototyping missions using modern technology.
Defense News reported Tuesday that DRONEWERX will launch efforts to determine how to achieve function swarming, technological requirements of such swarms and strategies for swarm deployment.
Geurts said that he expects the organization to reach initial capability status in less than 90 days.
