The Army has fielded two divisions with counter-drone capabilities and the plan is to ultimately provide assets down to the platoon level that can counter small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS), the head of the Defense Department’s office charged with doctrine, requirements, training, and material solutions to address threats from sUAS, said on Wednesday.
The “intent” is to get these counter-sUAS capabilities into 10 divisions, Army Maj. Gen. Sean Gainey, director of the Joint Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office (JCO) said during a presentation at the annual Association of the U.S. Army (AUSA) Conference in Washington, D.C.
The suite of C-sUAS solutions for the Army’s divisions will include the Coyote, a small expendable tube-launched UAS that flies into other drones to destroy other small drones, Gainey said. Coyote is supplied by RTX [RTX] and is used in mobile in fixed-site applications.
Coyote is mounted on the two-vehicle Mobile-Low, Slow, Small Unmanned Aircraft Integrated Defeat System, called M-LIDS, that is supplied by Leonardo DRS [DRS]. The system is transitioning to a single vehicle configuration for divisional support, Gainey said.
The U.S. Central Command area of responsibility includes “a lot” of fixed-site LIDS, he said.
The Coyote is effective against Group 3 sUAS, which include loitering munitions and one-way attack drones, he said. Group 3 systems weigh more than 55-pounds and less than 1,320-pounds.
M-LIDS also includes a 30mm gun and an electronic warfare system to take down smaller drones and the system will be deployed at the company and brigade levels, Gainey said. Handheld EW systems will be deployed at the platoon level.
“This is our signature system in the Army” and has been in “several successful engagements in theater against Group 3 one-way attacks,” Gainey said of Coyote. “We’ve continued to evolve that low-cost interceptor.”
Col. Michael Parent, who runs the JCO’s acquisition efforts, said the office has assessed handheld C-sUAS systems “because in this day and age what we have learned is that every soldier, sailor, Marine and airman is a counter small UAS defender. It is not just branch specific anymore. Everyone has to have some kind of capability and some kind of training to make sure that that happens.”
Lt. Col. Johnathan Hester, the chief for the JCO’s Requirements and Capabilities Division, finished his presentation by asking the audience to look up.
“Alright, you have just been [through] the first step of training for counter small UAS,” Hester said.
The Russo-Ukraine War is highlighting the ubiquitous use on the battlefield of various sUAS, typically ranging from Groups 1 to 3, for a variety of missions such as intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, targeting, battle damage assessment, and either to drop munitions or integrated with a munition to become a suicide drone.
Lt. Col. Seth Barrett, commander, 3rd Battalion, 6th Air Defense Artillery Regiment for the Army’s Fires Center of Excellence, said during an AUSA panel on Tuesday that one of the lessons he has learned from training Ukrainian forces is that everyone of their squads is equipped with a drone and that is “another skillset” for them just like having a machine gun. A Ukrainian brigade commander has nine video screens in his command vehicle and they were all drones. I have four. I’m a brigade commander.”
The JCO has been conducting annual demonstrations of C-sUAS solutions and capabilities for the past few years with more planned in 2024. The office has also sent prototypes into various areas of responsibility to obtain lessons learned as part of efforts to improve these capabilities. The systems that have been used in different theaters include high-powered microwave, lasers, and kinetic, all of which are demonstrating success, Gainey said.
While showing a video clip of JCO-led demonstrations, Gainey said a “30mm gun is very effective against a small UAS.” He also showed the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS), which costs about $40,000 per rocket, taking out a Group 3 UAS. The APKWS capability has been delivered to “some of our partners and will eventually support our soldiers to,” he said.
One of the C-sUAS systems the U.S. has supplied Ukraine is the L3Harris Technologies [LHX]-developed VAMPIRE, which fires the BAE Systems-supplied APKWS. The rocket system has been evaluated by the JCO on different platforms, the office said.
Gainey also highlighted Lockheed Martin’s [LMT] MORFIUS system which is a small drone equipped with a compact HPM capability to zap the electronics on a threat drone to disable it in flight. The JCO is sending four Epirus-built Leonidas HPM systems, which are ground-based, to a unit for assessing, he said.