Killer Robot Swarms, an Update

The Pentagon doesn’t openly discuss many of its most advanced technologies, but last year it called for proposals from the defense industry for a new program called AMASS, for Autonomous Multi-Domain Adaptive Swarms-of-Swarms. The goal: To develop the ability to deploy thousands of autonomous land, sea and air drones to overwhelm and dominate an enemy’s area defenses, according to recently updated documents.

As for where they’d send such a swarm — officials haven’t named names, but observers reading between the lines think they may envision using them in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. (A Pentagon spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)

“I am not surprised that DARPA and DoD are working on this considering they are in a tech race with China, which also has its own swarm accomplishments to date,” the Center for a New American Security’s Samuel Bendett told Digital Future Daily. Last week, the Hudson Institute's Bryan Clark also called for the U.S. to challenge China with drone swarms.

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