The US Pentagon is planning a new ‘weapon of mass destruction’ that involves thousands of drones that strike by air, land and water to destroy enemy defenses – but experts fear humans could lose control of the ‘swarms.’

The top-secret project, dubbed AMASS (Autonomous Multi-Domain Adaptive Swarms-of-Swarms), would represent automated warfare on an unprecedented scale.

AMASS is still in the planning stages, but DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Project Agency) has been collecting bids from suppliers for the $78 million contract.

Small drones would be equipped with weapons and tools for navigation and communication, along with abilities ranging from radar jamming to launching lethal attacks.

While the technology would change how the US goes to war, experts in the industry raise concerns. Zachary Kallenborn, a policy fellow at George Mason University in Virginia, said: ‘As the swarm grows in size, it’ll become virtually impossible for humans to manage the decisions.’

The US military has been using unmanned aerial vehicles on the battlefield since 2001, but has since evolved to employ smaller, stealthier machines to sneak over enemy lines to destroy camps or even jam opposing technologies.

And DARPA’s AMASS would release thousands at once to undertake several tasks with little to no human intervention. Speaking on a panel at Cornell last year, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Paul Lushenko said: ‘Drones can aid, they can watch, and they can kill.’

‘In theory, AMASS could be entirely non-lethal, carrying out jamming or other non-kinetic attacks in support of other platforms that actually destroy the defences,’ said Kallenborn.

‘I think that’s unlikely though.’ The AMASS project’s development would involve experiments with both real and virtual drone swarms, then gradually increasing their size and complexity. (SOURCE)