Inter-Missile Communications Required

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The UK will develop new systems that will allow missiles in flight to communicate with one another. The British Ministry of Defence is investing £3.5 million (US$4.8 million) in the Defence Science Technology Laboratory (Dstl) for the Co-operative Strike Weapons Technology Demonstrator (CSWTD) program.

Smart, next generation weapons can gather data, assess situations, and alter their plans to achieve their objectives. The problem is that for such weapons to be effective, they need to be able to operate as a team rather than in a top-down fashion. The current generation of missiles can talk to their launcher, but not to one another. This is a considerable drawback with weapons that are able to adapt to their situation and need to inform their fellow missiles of the situation.

To bridge the gap, the CSWTD program will look at developing both new hardware and new software that will make missiles more cooperative, as well as studying how to apply them to real-world scenarios. 

The program will investigate how inter-missile communication and cooperative behaviors can be technically achieved to solve UK military challenges. The two-year project began in April 2021 and the new technology could be integrated into a smarter integrated network of missiles within five years.

The new program is part of a larger £6-billion (US$8-billion) research and development budget by the ministry, according to newatlas.com.