At a recent experimental exercise at Fort Sill, Okla., Staff Sgt. Eric Davis of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division shot down at least a dozen unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from the interior of a Stryker Wheeled Vehicle.
What makes his marksmanship unique is that Davis used a 5kw laser to down the simulated enemy drones, of which more than 14 different types were flown during the Maneuver Fires Integration Experiment (MFIX).
“It was extremely effective,” Davis said during a May 10 conference call with reporters about the MFIX. “I want to say I took down 12 different entities that flew out there. I was able to bring them down as they were able to put them up.”
The Stryker-mounted mobile high energy laser (MHEL) was one of 33 technologies tested at the MFIX, which focused on counter-UAS capabilities, which is seen as a major capability gap the Army has against proliferation of relatively advanced but inexpensive small unmanned systems, said John Haithcock, director of the Fires Battle Laboratory at the Fires Center of Excellence at Fort Sill.
“Today there are several emerging disruptive threats, especially in fires and unmanned aerial systems,” Haithcock said.
The recent MFIX was designed to evaluate technologies that could fill capability gaps in four areas: precision fires; short-range air defense (SHORAD); directed energy and electronic warfare; and autonomous aerial resupply and distribution, Haithcock said.
Systems that are determined effective and mature in MFIX are nominated for inclusion at the next Joint Warfighting Assessment (JWA), the Army’s large-scale force-on-force technology evaluation exercise.
“The system is then placed into soldiers’ hands in a force-on-force tactical environment to see how it holds up,” Haithcock said. “Based on that, these systems can be picked up by the Army under an urgent needs request and be sent to theater.”
An example of a technology that already has been through the process and is now fielded is the counter-UAS mobile integrated capability (CMIC). The Stryker-mounted system is a suite of sensors and countermeasures that can detect, identify, track and disrupt or destroy small enemy unmanned aerial systems. CMIC is now deployed to Army units in Europe and soon could include a 10kw laser based on the less powerful model tested during the recent MFIX, Haithcock said.
The Stryker-mounted laser is the next technology that will be sent from the MFIX to a JWA, likely the first one in 2018 that will conducted in Europe. The MHEL will again be tested at an MFIX event in November. It will then be upgraded to 10kw and that version will be tested at the 2018 JWA, Haithcock said.
Another system that got high marks at the MFIX is the anti-UAV defense system, or AUDS, is an aircraft-mounted electronic warfare system that is capable of disrupting the operation of small unmanned aircraft through electronic means. During the MFIX, the system was carried by a Gray Eagle.
“We conducted electronic attack where we could basically disrupt a UAV,” Haithcock said. “We could use the system to find where the common ground stations were located.”
Also tested was a common, remotely operated weapon system mounted with a .50 caliber machine gun that was loaded with rounds specially designed to destroy airborne unmanned systems, he said.
Although it has not been fired during an exercise because of range regulations, the Army also has mounted a TWQ-1 Avenger surface-to-air missile system on a Stryker as another tool for mobile short-range air defense.
“While we haven’t had a chance to get that live here at Fort Sill, they brought it as a demonstration,” Haithcock said.
The MFIX is a joint initiative between the FCoE and the Army Capabilities Integration Center, or ARCIC. It is designed to provide an opportunity for soldiers to get hands-on experience with emerging, innovative technologies and give immediate feedback to ARCIC’s Science, Technology, Research and Accelerated Capabilities Division (STRACD), which assists capabilities development teams in shaping future capability requirements.
STRACD Chief Col. Lee Dunlap said the key takeaway from MFIX is that ARCIC, which acts as a “scout for emerging technologies” for the larger Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), can develop capability requirements based on the gear and capabilities it tests that it might otherwise not have known existed.
“At some point in time we’ll take these to an AROC, Army Requirements Oversight Council, so we can review this at the chief-of-staff level and see how we can transition technologies formally into programs of record,” Dunlap said. “We have a formal process in place today that takes it from the initial experimentation … and goes all the way through for assessment of whether these satisfy requirements.”