Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) already play a key role in military operations, with a role that has evolved from basic drone missions to advanced autonomous activities that are a key part of mission success, especially in challenging environments. Their use on today’s battlefields is unmatched, moving from basic drone missions to advanced autonomous swarms. 

The future battlefield is moving beyond relying on a small number of high-cost individual systems, to a mix of systems with different goals and functions.  One key evolution will be the use of coordinated groups of drones working together directly or with human operators to provide intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR), targeting support, or force protection across dynamic environments. 

Enabling drone swarms on tomorrow’s battlefield is not simply a matter of deploying more units; it requires incredible resilience in communications to facilitate control, autonomy, and network self-healing. 

It is a challenge of communications, coordination, and infrastructure at scale. 

From Individual Drones to Coordinated Systems 

Today’s drone operations typically function via one-to-one relationships. single human operator maintains a link with a single aircraft. Drone swarms shift this dynamic to a one-to-many relationship: a single point of command controls a swarm of drones. 

This one-to-many dynamic can be implemented in several ways: 

• A single human operator may control a lead drone in the swarm, which then relays commands to the rest of the swarm.  

• Another more complex system is for drones within a swarm to communicate with one another while following a pre-programmed set of rules.  

• A third, most advanced operation is cutting-edge drone swarms that utilize AI for highly autonomous swarm operations and delegation, providing the swarm with only high-level objectives. 

Challenges of Swarm Evolution 

Electronic warfare (EW) has also evolved as the modern battlefield has changed, and will continue to evolve quickly as this future becomes reality.  Jammers deployed via machine or operators to work across frequencies, plus smart jammers that can find and follow signals will be a feature of battlefield operations.   

A swarm is not just a collection of drones—it is a networked system in which coordination, sensing, and decision-making rely on continuous data exchange. If that network is disrupted, the swarm can lose cohesion, degrade in capability, or fail entirely.  

As a result, frequency agility and other adaptive capabilities will become  especially critical for drone swarms, as the swarm’s effectiveness depends on reliable communication among many nodes simultaneously.  Communications that are resilient to electronic warfare tactics will be a key factor to enable swarm evolution.  

Communications Resiliency Is Critical To Tomorrow’s Battlefield 

Swarms will depend on continuous communication to coordinate behavior, relay mission-critical data, and share position and navigational information.  

Jamming can disrupt the basic functioning of the swarm, preventing data sharing and command updates, and isolating sections of the swarm. The threat of EW attack requires swarms to have frequency agility, mesh networking integration, and frictionless communication speeds to maintain swarm integrity and operations. 

As UAV technology evolves toward autonomous, coordinated drone swarms battlefield success will rely on their ability to act as coordinated, distributed systems—sensing, adapting to conditions, and executing missions collaboratively.  

Command and Control (C2) resiliency enables swarms to maintain connectivity and coordination even in contested electromagnetic environments, but this coordination depends on robust communication links. 

Doodle Labs is designing the communications network of the future 

As battlefield conditions evolve, Doodle Labs is leveraging our historic focus on communications resilience in dynamic and contested environments to support drone OEMs and operators.  

We deliver an integrated hardware and software system designed to assure links in contested environments and ensure that communications are not a limiting factor as drone technology scales in volume, sophistication, and deployment.  

Learn more about our new Sense EW solution that supports the evolving realities of electronic warfare, and learn more about the evolving needs for communication resiliency in our Link Assurance Playbook.