Pentagon’s Swarm Forge Demo Shows One Operator Can Now Command a Lethal Drone Swarm

A new viral video from the Pentagon’s Swarm Forge initiative shows a single operator simultaneously destroying three separate targets with three autonomous drones. The demonstration, executed by Auterion using Kraken Kinetic warheads, marks a global first: a live-fire, one-to-many lethal strike where the operator designates targets and the intelligent swarm executes the attack autonomously.

The age of drone swarm warfare just shifted from theory to tangible, near-term reality. In a stark demonstration of emerging combat technology, the U.S. Department of Defense has publicly showcased a system where a human commander clicks on targets, and a coordinated swarm does the rest.

This isn’t just a flashy tech demo; it’s a clear signal of trust and impending deployment. Lorenz Meier, CEO of Auterion, the software company behind the swarm’s brain, told Forbes that the significance is profound. “What this shows is that the customer trusts the system enough to put live warheads on swarming drones not directly controlled by the operator,” Meier said. “That’s a historic level of trust.”

At the core of this capability is Auterion’s Nemyx swarm software, a mature system already proven in the grueling battlefields of Ukraine, where the company’s drones destroy Russian vehicles daily. The Pentagon demonstration elevates that individual potency to a coordinated force multiplier. The operator, using a simple interface, clicks on each target. From there, Nemyx takes over. A distributed “swarming engine” runs as an app on each drone, enabling them to communicate, organize by target priority, and synchronize their attack. If one drone is lost mid-flight, another automatically reassigns itself to the target, ensuring mission completion.

Meier emphasized to Forbes that the system is designed for resilient, real-world combat. The swarm creates a robust mesh network between drones, which is inherently harder to jam than a single drone’s link to a distant operator. “Even if all communication is lost, each drone will use its best efforts to hit its target,” Meier stated. Crucially, the system includes a certified safety protocol allowing the entire swarm to be armed and disarmed at will, providing commanders with a crucial measure of control over the autonomous weapons.

A key insight from Meier is that the physical drone is almost incidental. “The drone hardware is completely irrelevant,” he noted. The demonstration used a generic, 10-inch FPV drone design (SLM-10) similar to the $500 attack drones flooding the front lines in Ukraine. Auterion provides the reference design and the Nemyx software, allowing nations to produce both the cheap, commoditized drones and the sovereign, secure swarm intelligence domestically. This addresses a major strategic concern: reducing dependency on foreign supply chains, particularly China. The company has even established software escrow agreements in the U.S. and Germany, guaranteeing customer access to the source code no matter what.

The demonstration is a centerpiece of Swarm Forge, a flagship project under the Department of Defense’s new Artificial Intelligence Acceleration Strategy. Its goal is to rapidly discover, test, and scale AI-enabled combat capabilities. According to Meier, the U.S. military may deploy the Nemyx system by the end of this year, with potential combat use in Ukraine following soon after. The implication is a fundamental change in the tempo and scale of warfare. President Zelensky recently stated that drones caused 80% of damage to Russian forces in 2025; intelligent swarms could multiply that effectiveness exponentially, allowing one operator to potentially neutralize dozens of targets in a single, synchronized strike.

This technological leap doesn’t necessarily mean the end of tanks or fighter jets, but their evolution. Meier envisions drones as a powerful new layer integrated into existing forces—arming tanks with drone swarms, for instance. As other nations like China, Turkey, and Russia race to develop their own swarms, the Pentagon’s public demo is a powerful statement: the future of autonomous, swarm warfare isn’t on the horizon. It’s here, it’s trusted, and it’s ready for action.