Silent Swarm 2023 in Alpena Demonstrates Communication and Unmanned Technologies
High tech communication devices and unmanned systems are being tested around Alpena and Thunder Bay.
It’s part of Silent Swarm, an operation sponsored by the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Electromagnetic Warfare and Countermeasures Office.
Alpena residents may have noticed a lot of traffic on thunder bay and near the shoreline as people from around the country have come to test their equipment. “We have folks from the air force, the navy, the marine corps, the army,” said Rob Gamberg, fleet experimentation lead with the naval surface warfare center. “We have a lot of technology industries, from industry, from the government laboratories and from a lot of universities.”
These devices could help make a difference when they’re put in actual situations. “A lot of new technologies that sense signals in the environment that we can use to enable our Department of Defense forces to create an advantage in a complex and challenging environment.”
Even if not near the water, you may have seen a large balloon which helps them communicate over longer distances. “It’s about 20 feet in diameter,” Gamber said. “You’ll see that flying near the NOAA and Heritage Center here. You’ll see that up and operating. That’s part of our communications network that I’ve talked about. It lets us reach a longer range with that.”
It’s the second year the Alpena area was chosen to deploy these technologies as the partnership with the NOAA is perfect considering the research they do as well. “The mindset is really the same. That’s one of the things we realized right off the bat when we met with the folks here at NOAA,” said Gamberg. “That’s why the partnership here has been absolutely been fantastic. We have a lot of fun doing it, they have a lot of fun doing it and the teaming is just a natural pairing.”
Silent swarm will continue until July 21.
