Courtesy Photo Silent Swarm 2024 participants gather for a group photo outside the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center, headquarters of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary. During the two-week event, more than 500 participants visited Alpena and conducted research and operations at both the Combat Readiness Training Center and in the Sanctuary.

ALPENA — The third year of Silent Swarm concluded Friday at the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center in Alpena. During the two-week event, more than 500 participants visited Alpena and conducted research and operations at both the Combat Readiness Training Center and in the sanctuary.

Rob “Ice” Gamberg is both the Silent Swarm lead and fleet experimentation lead for the Naval Service Warfare Center in Crane, Indiana.

“Our event has grown each year, over the last three years,” Gamberg said. “Initially, the first year, we had 17 technologies that we brought up.”

Sondra Laughlin, deputy lead for Silent Swarm, said the first year, there were about 150 people in attendance. She works with Gamberg at the Naval Service Warfare Center in Crane. In the second year of Silent Swarm, 31 technologies were featured, with about 300 in attendance. This year, 57 technologies were included, with more than 500 participants.

Silent Swarm is sponsored by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, Integrated Sensing and Cyber. Event leads include the NSWC Crane, in partnership with the Michigan National Guard, Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic Division, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Army C5ISR Center, and the Air Force Test Center.

Participants included both military and civilian experts from the Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, and Navy, providing direct feedback to industry professionals about the operational challenges warfighters face. The objectives include testing and experimenting with new technologies to assess current and future capabilities. Electromagnetic spectrum operations (EMSO) were implemented and tested during the event.

“We bring folks in here, technologies from industry, government labs, and academia, all focused on a central hypothesis that small electromagnetic spectrum operations … employed on small, multi-domain unmanned systems can have a really beneficial impact for our deployed forces,” Gamberg said. “We bring in new technologies, we create an environment where they can bring those technologies in and experiment with them, try new things — succeed, fail, learn.”

According to a press release from the NSWC, “Silent Swarm will enhance our ability to address evolving threats and challenges,” as well as helping to stay at the forefront of technological advancements in order to “maintain a strong defense posture.”

Local students involved in school robotic programs got a chance to tour Silent Swarm, meeting many of the technicians, engineers, company owners, and talking with them about their careers. They had lots of questions and found the experience eye opening and valuable for their futures.

“We’ve started some pretty cool science and technology engagements with the kids here in the local schools, as well as on the university side,” Gamberg said, adding that students from Notre Dame participated this year.

He explained that while some events like Silent Swarm are competitive in nature, this one is much more collaborative, with all the participants and departments working together toward the common goal of using cutting-edge technologies to improve communication and security for all involved.

“We really take a completely different approach,” he said. “We really create an event and create an environment for them to collaborate and work together. And that information sharing and that teaming has really been some of the most magical stuff that comes out of our event, for the last three years.”

“You have technologies out there, you have those unmanned surface vessels, the boats, out there, that one company has brought, and that’s cool … but it’s even more interesting when you can put a sensor on it … and then they deploy 10 of them, with sensors, and then they can really surround an area, and just the impact that can have, and the ability to feed that information back to other sources,” Laughlin said, adding that those partnerships are invaluable. “We do a lot of networking, as much as we can, throughout the entire process.”

She said getting those complementary technologies together benefits everyone involved, as they watch and learn from each other.

Gamberg added that Silent Swarm leaders and participants look forward to returning to Alpena each summer.

“We come back to Alpena because the partnership up here has been absolutely fantastic,” Gamberg said. “Working with NOAA … not only the fantastic resources right here, right on the river, right downtown, but also working with the captains of the boats, working with the National Weather Service, all the components of the NOAA enterprise that help us do this. Our folks are absolutely in love with the community of Alpena.”

Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary Superintendent Jeff Gray said it’s an honor to host Silent Swarm.

“It’s a huge deal,” Gray said. “National defense is really the primary purpose of this, and we’re thrilled to be a part of this, and partner with CRTC on that aspect of it.”

He added that Silent Swarm positively impacts the local economy, brings new technologies to Alpena businesses with potential for partnerships, and provides research opportunities that impact resource protection and education.