The Air Force Is Testing Bombs That Can Talk
The Air Force has tested a new technology known as Golden Horde, which allows weapons to collaborate on targeting—on the way to their targets.
In the test, two precision glide bombs identified a higher-priority target than one to which they were assigned.
The new technology will make it possible for weapons to set their own targeting priorities on a fast-moving battlefield.
The U.S. Air Force took a tiny, but important step toward a future where weapons will be able to work together to take advantage of the latest intelligence on the battlefield. The recent test of two Collaborative Small Diameter Bombs is a validation of the Air Force’s Golden Horde concept, which uses the sensors of weapons streaking toward their targets to evaluate the battlefield and turn their attention to bigger, more important targets on the ground.
Modern warfare has come a long way since the days of World War II’s massive bomber raids over occupied Europe. A single F-35A strike fighter can now do much more damage by placing guided bombs precisely on target than dozens of B-17 Flying Fortress bombers dropping unguided bombs.
One problem that’s persisted is the interval between when targets are selected by mission planners and the bombs actually striking their targets. Improved communications and intelligence gathering have shrunk the interval considerably, as has a pilot’s ability to change targets.
Still, once a pilot releases a bomb, there isn't usually an option for swapping targets based on the weapon’s sharp-eyed sensors, which are collecting data right up until the moment the weapon smashes into the target.
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Golden Horde aims to change that by allowing weapons to use their own sensor data to make their own decisions. With the tech, weapons can establish a communications link with each other and then use a series of “plays”—criteria set in place by mission planners—to collectively analyze their data and change targeting if necessary.
Future bombs, missiles, and other munitions will be able to change targeting in flight, allowing the Air Force to detect and strike high-priority targets that might have just rolled onto the battlefield.
In the recent test, an F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jet released two Small Diameter Bombs, which communicated with each other and discovered the presence of an enemy GPS seeker in the target area. From the Air Force Research Lab:
“[The bombs] determined that the jammer was not the highest priority target. The weapons then collaborated to identify the two highest priority targets. However, due to an improper weapon software load, the collaboration guidance commands were not sent to the weapon navigation system. Without the updated target locations, the weapons impacted a failsafe target location.”
Golden Horde does not utilize artificial intelligence, but rather, a system more like the “if, then” commands built into computer software, the Air Force says. For example, if a user plugs her iPhone into a computer, then the computer will launch Apple Music. In Golden Horde’s case, if a bomb is streaking toward a radar installation and then the bomb’s infrared seeker detects a nuclear-capable ballistic missile launcher, the bomb will home in on the launcher instead.
Even better, one Golden Horde-enabled bomb can tell other bombs in flight what it discovered after launch. All of the bombs will then come to the same conclusion that the launcher is more important than the original target, piling on and helping to ensure its destruction.
The GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb is an unpowered precision-guided bomb that consists of a 250-pound bomb payload, a seeker/sensor package, and a guidance kit. A fighter or bomber can release the SDB from distances of up to 60 miles, whereupon the bomb will glide down and strike its designated target.
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