Sweden unveils drone swarm to be paired with ground troops

MILAN — Sweden has unveiled a cluster of swarming aerial drones envisioned to equip ground and air units of the Swedish Armed Forces for intelligence and surveillance applications.

The project was announced by Swedish Minister for Defense Pal Jonson during a Jan. 15 press conference.

In a demonstration video shared with Defense News, a formation of 10 quadcopters is seen taking off and relaying footage of their flight trajectory above snowy forests to ground operators.

A Swedish voice-over explains that the drones’ high-resolution imagery and artificial intelligence-driven analyses enable commanders to have immediate and actionable insights for faster decision-making – military lingo describing the advantage of having flying eyes and ears for securing a perimeter.

The initiative has involved the participation of the Swedish aerospace company Saab in cooperation with the Swedish military, the Swedish Defense Material Administration and the Swedish Defense Research Agency.

While Saab does not provide the drones themselves, for now, it worked alongside the other agencies to design a software for their command and control.

“The individual UAVs in the swarm are equipped with different capabilities, such as varying sensors, payload, and communication capacities – the swarms are controlled by a single operator who can assign … tasks to one or more swarms, for instance via a mobile phone,” a Saab spokesperson told Defense News in an email statement.

The Saab representative added that the drone swarm technology was developed in “a very short period,” and that additional NATO countries have already expressed interest in it.

The Scandinavian country borders the Baltic Sea, where NATO recently launched a maritime patrol mission, following a series of sabotage incidents against underwater infrastructure.

The interest in drone swarms is not new, as militaries around the world have examined both the opportunities and threats they present. In a recent publication for the U.S.-based Atlantic Council think-tank, the head of the Ukrainian defense-technology hub Brave1 listed drone swarms as a top priority for Kyiv in 2025.

“Ukrainian drone units are already moving beyond the initial concept of one drone, one operator and looking to transition towards drone swarms this year,” she wrote.

A key challenge swarms have presented is that they are typically composed of relatively small, short-range drones, which implies that their flight time is highly limited to around 30 minutes.

Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo was a Europe correspondent for Defense News. She covers a wide range of topics related to military procurement and international security, and specializes in reporting on the aviation sector. She is based in Milan, Italy.

米兰——瑞典推出了一系列集群式无人机，旨在为瑞典武装部队的地面和空中部队提供情报和监视应用装备。

该项目由瑞典国防部长帕尔·约翰逊在1月15日的新闻发布会上宣布。

在与《防务新闻》分享的一段演示视频中，可以看到 10 架四旋翼飞行器组成编队起飞，并将它们在雪林上空的飞行轨迹画面传输给地面操作员。

瑞典旁白解释说，无人机的高分辨率图像和人工智能驱动的分析使指挥官能够立即获得可操作的见解，从而更快地做出决策——这是军事术语，描述了拥有飞行耳目来确保周边安全的优势。

该计划由瑞典航空航天公司萨博与瑞典军方、瑞典国防物资管理局和瑞典国防研究局合作参与。

虽然萨博目前不提供无人机本身，但它与其他机构合作，为其指挥和控制设计了软件。

萨博公司的一位发言人在一封电子邮件声明中告诉《防务新闻》：“集群中的每架无人机都配备了不同的功能，例如不同的传感器、有效载荷和通信能力——集群由一名操作员控制，该操作员可以通过手机等方式将任务分配给一个或多个集群。”

萨博公司的代表补充说，无人机群技术是在“很短的时间内”开发的，而且其他北约国家已经对此表示了兴趣。

这个北欧国家濒临波罗的海，北约最近在波罗的海地区展开了海上巡逻任务，此前该地区发生了一系列针对水下基础设施的破坏事件。

人们对无人机集群的兴趣由来已久，世界各国军队都曾研究过它们带来的机遇和威胁。在近期为美国智库大西洋理事会撰写的一份报告中，乌克兰国防技术中心Brave1的负责人将无人机集群列为基辅2025年的首要任务之一。

她写道：“乌克兰无人机部队已经超越了最初一架无人机、一名操作员的概念，并计划在今年过渡到无人机集群。”

集群无人机面临的一个关键挑战是，它们通常由相对较小、航程较短的无人机组成，这意味着它们的飞行时间非常有限，大约只有 30 分钟。

伊丽莎白·戈斯林-马洛曾任《防务新闻》欧洲通讯员。她的报道涵盖军事采购和国际安全等广泛领域，尤其擅长航空领域的报道。她常驻意大利米兰。