The operational value of drones on the battlefield is now firmly established, but their effectiveness is still limited by two factors: they usually require one operator per drone, and a secure, resilient datalink must be available throughout the mission. Flight tests organised for the JDEC1 demonstrations on 16 October 2024 turned the spotlight on the latest breakthroughs by Thales and its partners in their efforts to overcome these limitations and support drone swarm operations tailored to military requirements. In the tests, Thales's COHESION demonstrator showed how AI and intelligent agents can be used to achieve an unparalleled level of autonomous operation in drone swarm deployments.
The system architecture of the COHESION demonstrator enables operators to adapt the level of autonomy of their drone swarms to the operational requirements of each phase of the mission. This new possibility offers an unprecedented level of flexibility in contested environments, where electronic warfare measures can saturate communication systems and jam datalinks that rely on GNSS signals. Autonomous operation by single drones and/or entire swarms overcomes the need for a permanent datalink with the control station. The drones are capable of perceiving and analysing their local environment, sharing target information, analysing enemy intent and prioritising missions. They can also utilise collaborative tactics and optimise their trajectories to increase resilience and boost force effectiveness, helping to accelerate the OODA2 loop and enhance battlefield transparency.
This innovative approach acts as a force multiplier without increasing the cognitive load on operators, who remain in charge of the most critical decisions. The use of trusted, cybersecure, human-in-the-loop AI guarantees safe human supervision at all times, in line with Thales's principles of TrUE AI3.
"We are proud to be developing innovative solutions aligned with strong ethical values. Our solutions are demonstrable, applicable, incremental and deployable, acting as a force multiplier without increasing the cognitive burden on operators, yet guaranteeing that they retain their central role in the decision-making process." Hervé Dammann, Executive Vice President, Land and Air Systems, Thales.
Positioned as a systems provider and integrator, Thales has developed its Drone Warfare offering to accelerate interoperability between a wide range of land, airland, air and naval platforms. The Group is also a key player in an ecosystem of French industries and tech companies working to expand the capabilities of front-line drones in the theatre of operations.
In June 2023, Thales unveiled OpenDRobotics, a revolutionary AI-based solution that ties together robotics technologies and different types of unmanned air and ground-based assets to build complete human-in-the-loop mission systems.
Thales is also an established manufacturer of unmanned air systems: its Spy’Ranger 330 system, for example, has been selected for the French Army's SMDR (4) programme. Thales's acquisition of Aeromapper in 2024 has expanded its range of drone products to include the TOUTATIS loitering munition.
In March 2024, Thales created cortAIx to speed development of trusted AI for critical systems. Among its short-term objectives, cortAIx aims to integrate and industrialise AI development tools to enable the armed forces to optimise analysis of the data generated by sensors and decision support solutions while addressing the specific cybersecurity, embeddability and frugality requirements of systems operating in constrained environments.
1 JDEC: Journée de Démonstrations d’Essaims de Drones de Contact / Front-line drone swarm demonstrations
2 OODA: Observe, Orient, Decide, Act
3 TrUE AI: Transparent, Understandable, Ethical AI
4 SMDR: Système de Mini-Drones de Reconnaissance / mini-drone system for reconnaissance missions
