The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division, the naval laboratory and a field activity of Naval Sea Systems Command, held Silent Swarm 2024 from July 15 to 26 at the National All-Domain Warfighting Center in Alpena, Michigan.
The NAVSEA said Monday the two-week electromagnetic spectrum operations experimentation event was sponsored by the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering’s Integrated Sensing and Cyber division.
A total of 50 different technologies were featured during the annual event, which is in its third year. Only 17 technologies participated in the inaugural event in 2022, but that number doubled the following year.
Silent Swarm 2024 not only saw the influx of more technologies, it also welcomed more international partners. Australia and the United Kingdom were active since the planning stage while four more partner nations participated during the execution of the event.
Robert “Ice” Gamberg, project lead for Silent Swarm, noted that the event has grown larger and more complex since the maiden event. “It’s been an evolutionary change. We have matured our processes and we have a more diverse collection of technologies across multiple domains and participants from industry, government research labs, and academia this year.”
The U.S. Navy veteran added that the event was structured to allow for innovative excursions and teaming. “Silent Swarm execution highlighted the power of a collaborative environment focused on a central hypothesis to drive technical and tactical experimentation objectives.”
Gamberg cited a particular development as proof of the benefits of collaboration between participating teams. The project involved an uncrewed surface vessel using an uncrewed air vehicle and an unmanned underwater vehicle with all three platforms delivering electromagnetic spectrum operations capabilities.
“The teams were iterating, trying new ideas and creating unique partnerships and platform, payload pairings in real time,” said Gramberg.
Sondra Laughlin, deputy project lead for Silent Swarm, highlighted the event’s unique testing environment for the participants, saying “The multi-domain component at NADWC adds a significant dynamic environment for live experimentation. Unmanned underwater, surface, airborne, and ground vehicles together in one event…it’s fascinating. Innovation and execution of that level of learning environment is central to the success of Silent Swarm.”
Laughlin also pointed out that the organizers wanted participants to interact and create possible collaborations. “We’ve put intention into how participants can network with each other at Silent Swarm. There’s space and planned structure in the planning workshops to help them find complementary technology partnerships that can experiment together at Silent Swarm.”
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