DARPA’s Service Academies Swarm Challenge pits students from three U.S. military service academies against each other to explore swarm-versus-swarm tactics for unmanned aerial vehicles.

Two teams at a time play inside the Battle Cube, a cubic airspace 500 meters on a side, 78 meters above the ground. Each team is given 20 fixed-wing UAVs and 20 quad-rotor UAVs and, can field a mixed fleet of up to 25 UAVs for each of two 30-minute battle rounds. Each team protects its “flag” (a large, inflatable ground target) while trying to score the most points before time runs out.