Duke University has received a $24 million award from the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Office (DEVCOM ARO) to develop the foundational science required to engineer and build systems to counter unmanned aerial attacks. The six-year cooperative agreement establishes the Inducing Cyber and Physical Effects in Unmanned Aerial Systems via Cyber-Electromagnetic Convergence (ICE-CEM) center, bringing together experts from seven leading academic institutions and Lockheed Martin to give the U.S. and its allies a technological advantage as unmanned systems and electronic warfare rapidly evolve.
Led by Miroslav Pajic, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Duke, ICE-CEM brings together experts in wireless systems, Global Navigation Satellite Systems and navigation warfare, cybersecurity, edge computing, AI and autonomy. Their mandate is to develop the fundamental tools and automated procedures needed to detect, thwart and control enemy unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), with minimal system interaction and limited knowledge of the target UAVs.
The ICE-CEM center includes researchers from Duke, the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), University of Michigan, Washington University in St. Louis (WashU), Princeton University, Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), and Lockheed Martin.
“We have already seen firsthand how unmanned systems are reshaping modern warfare, and the pace of innovation in drone technology, autonomy and electronic warfare is only accelerating,” said Pajic. “ICE-CEM is about getting ahead of that evolution by giving operators a continuously adapting arsenal of effects that can disrupt, deceive, disable or potentially take control of adversarial UAVs.”
The center is the culmination and convergence of multiple decades-long research thrusts pursued by some of Duke Engineering’s most prolific faculty members.
“Duke has a proud history of close partnerships with the military, which is why we are thrilled to expand that partnership with this nationally vital center to advance drone technologies,” said Alec Gallimore, provost and chief academic officer at Duke. “The entire university is grateful for Professor Pajic’s leadership of this cutting-edge center that is certain to ensure our national security in this dynamic technology arena.”
“Duke Engineering is proud to launch this partnership with the Army to accelerate technological solutions that control the cyber-electromagnetic interactions in autonomous unmanned aerial systems,” echoed Jerome Lynch, Vinik Dean of Engineering at Duke. “Its singular goal is protecting our armed forces and our nation from the destructive power of drones.”
A Full-Stack Approach to Countering UAVs
The end-product goal of the new ICE-CEM center is a library of fundamental abilities, like tools in a toolbox, and an autonomous playbook that knows when, where and how to deploy them to achieve optimal outcomes. In particular, ICE-CEM’s vision is an intelligent cyber-electromagnetic ‘web’ that can autonomously sense and understand the threat, identify vulnerabilities across communications, navigation, sensing and autonomy, and then determine and execute the most effective response. For example, the system might spoof GPS signals to send a drone off course, insert false data into its sensors or subroutines so that the drone reports incorrect information back to its source, or even override the drone’s original programming to take full control of its resources.
“Traditional electronic warfare has largely focused on disrupting communications or navigation,” said Pajic. “But increasingly autonomous drones will be able to continue their missions even when those links are lost. ICE-CEM takes a fundamentally broader approach by looking across the entire system. The goal is not simply to develop individual attacks or countermeasures but enable reasoning about which combination of cyber and electromagnetic effects is most likely to achieve the mission, and adapt when the target responds.”
To achieve this, ICE-CEM will pull together a wide assortment of fundamental and applied research programs.
Seven faculty members from Duke’s Pierre R. Lamond Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) will form a full-stack core of research expertise for the center. Their expertise spans security of cyber and physical systems, AI security, secure communications and electromagnetic systems, edge AI, and game-theoretic reasoning that enables autonomous systems to anticipate adversarial behavior, evaluate competing actions and adapt their responses.
“Duke ECE develops technologies across the stack—from materials and devices to sensing, computing, communications and intelligent systems—that connect the digital and physical worlds,” said Hai “Helen” Li, chair and Marie Foote Reel E’46 Distinguished Professor of Duke ECE. “ICE-CEM brings many of these strengths together around an important national security challenge. It demonstrates how sustained investment in foundational research, combined with interdisciplinary collaboration, can lead to integrated systems with real-world impact.”
Duke faculty will be joined by many long-time partners and domain experts from partner institutions who bring a wealth of knowledge in these fields as well as global navigation system spoofing, 5G and cellular security, wireless systems and advanced electromagnetic effects.
This broad academic expertise will be complemented by Lockheed Martin, whose deep experience in defense systems and operational needs will help translate ICE-CEM’s interdisciplinary research into integrated capabilities relevant to national security missions.
ICE-CEM also aims to become a national hub for defense innovation, while serving as a focal point for North Carolina’s rapidly growing defense ecosystem—bringing together the Army, other defense and government stakeholders, researchers, startups and established industry leaders to accelerate collaboration and move new technologies toward real-world national security impact
“Continual, full-stack UAV evaluation of the cyber electromagnetic concepts emerging from ICE-CEM center will help drive the Army's war-readiness for multi-domain operations,” said Dr. Paul Yu, DEVCOM ARO program manager. “Through this partnership, the Army will leverage university-led innovation to pioneer decisive technologies that secure electromagnetic spectrum dominance. Ultimately, this joint initiative ensures that next-generation cyber-electromagnetic defenses can be rapidly fielded to meet evolving national security threats.”