King of the Hill: C2 for Next Generation Swarm Warfare
Takuma Adams, Timothy McLennan-Smith

TL;DR
This paper introduces a game-theoretic framework to analyze high-level command and control structures in autonomous multi-agent military swarms, enabling rapid testing of C2 configurations as a force multiplier in adversarial scenarios.
Contribution
It presents a novel quantitative framework for studying C2 structures in multi-agent swarms, filling a gap in high-level military autonomous systems research.
Findings
Framework allows quick testing of C2 configurations.
C2 structures can significantly enhance swarm effectiveness.
Applicable to real-world military autonomous operations.
Abstract
As the reliability of cheap, off-the-shelf autonomous platforms increases, so does the risk posed by intelligent multi-agent systems to military operations. In the contemporary context of the Russo-Ukrainian war alone, we have seen autonomous aerial vehicles and surface vessels deployed both individually and in multitude to deliver critical effects to both sides. While there is a large body of literature on tactical level communications and interactions between agents, the exploration of high-level command and control (C2) structures that will underpin future autonomous multi-agent military operations is a less explored area of research. We propose a quantitative game-theoretic framework to study effective C2 structures in cooperative and competitive multi-agent swarming scenarios. To test our framework, we construct a virtual environment where two adversarial swarms compete to achieve…
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Taxonomy
TopicsMilitary Defense Systems Analysis · Military Strategy and Technology · Network Security and Intrusion Detection
