3: Spotted!

AI in the Battlespace: Chapter 3

3: Spotted!

“So that was plan A, to infiltrate their network,” Carrington continues, “But it’s a bit hit-or-miss and doesn’t immediately get the information back. So now we move to plan B.”

The drone lifts off again. This time it flies up out of the trees, over the cleared free-fire zone, over the boundary track which skirts the camp, over the barbed-wire of the perimeter fence and into the site itself. In a separate window on the big screen the audience sees the drone’s view of the world. It flies above dilapidated bunkers and old brick buildings following a green, computed guidance-thread.

“This drone is so quiet you wouldn’t hear it ten feet away. It’s black and radar transparent with a carrying capacity perfectly adequate for its task."

The drone lands on a rubbish-strewn roof plainly not on anyone's maintenance schedule. After a moment it lifts off again, camera panning back to check the battered brick it left behind.

“So this little device is a high-powered WiFi base station. Easy for phones and laptops to sync to it as it’s the strongest signal around. It’s got a separate backhaul to the device you saw the operatives installing in the woods, that batbox with its satellite uplink. And that's how we get the data back given that we now own their network and all its contents.”

The drone is in process of returning to its owner, flying low over the boundary fence, when it spots trouble.

Carrington picks up the pace, “In war movies this would be a couple of guards hauling on a snarling alsatian, but that’s not how the Russians do it. The drone has noticed an open-top jeep driving slowly around the perimeter track just outside the wire. You can see there's just the one occupant, the driver.”

The drone-video is clear enough for all to see; tension in the hall is palpable.

“Let me tell you why this is trouble,” says Carrington, “This is not the scheduled time for a circuit. Normally they’re like clockwork. Utterly routine. We have no idea why the guy decided to take a drive. Perhaps he was bored. Or maybe someone saw or heard something.”

The guy certainly doesn't look like he's suspicious; his jeep is just ambling along.

“What we’d like to do is ignore it. After all, the drone will be retrieved in a second and the guys are well-hidden. Plus their job is done. But there are a couple of worries. First we don’t want anyone looking too hard around the guardpost. Those USB devices need to be discovered by accident in the morning rush hour. And we don't want an alert called, our guys have got to get away.”

We cut to headcam video. The two operatives both lie prone. The muzzle of a silenced carbine can be seen low in the picture. As the jeep comes into view there is a quiet ‘phut’ like the sound of an air rifle and the jeep slews and comes to a halt jolting the driver forward.

“When they check it later,” Carrington says, “that’s going to look like a nail puncture. Special bullet.”

A second shot follows immediately from the other soldier. The driver slumps down in his seat.

“So that's the tranquilliser dart. The kind they use to capture animals. It has a hypnotic component which wipes memory. Kind of like that data-rape thing, Rohypnol.”

The soldier who fired the tranquilising dart is crawling inconspicuously toward the jeep. His camo is so good, his movements so natural that he’s barely visible even when you know he’s there. The sprawled driver is checked and the dart retrieved.

“The operative has dropped the body of a local wasp into the folds of his uniform. It took a prior insertion just to get hold of one,” says Carrington.

The video ends, replaced by a blank slide as Carrington finishes up.

“The driver would have woken twenty minutes later with no memory of how he fell asleep. He may think he banged his head when the jeep slewed just then, or maybe he’ll blame an adverse reaction to the sting. He’ll discover the tire puncture and call it in. He won’t want to admit anything went wrong for obvious reasons. That's plenty long enough for our guys to retrieve their canopies and fire up their electric paramotors. They launched and made for the coast about twelve miles away where they were met by a small inflatable. That took them to one of our submarines. Mission accomplished.”

He clicks for the final slide.

“I’m going to spare you the subsequent details, but as a result we now have the complete specs for the current generation of Russian autonomous land-warrior drones. The first thing we did was to load them into the battlespace simulator down in Florida to see how they did against ours.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant Colonel Carrington,” says the chair, “We’ll now take a twenty minute break before the next session where we get to hear the results.”

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