WASHINGTON – Three vendors demonstrated the ability to destroy small drones using interceptors with low collateral effects earlier this month at Arizona’s Yuma Proving Ground as part of a major Pentagon effort to develop permanent systems to combat the growing and evolving threat, it said Army official with Defense News in an interview on April 15.
Boeing’s Aurora Flight Sciences, Elta North America and Xtend were each assessed against a variety of threat scenarios over the course of a week in April.
The demonstration is the first in a series of events expected to take place twice a year. The joint force will examine the “most effective solutions” that will fill current capacity gaps and ready for the transition to field systems, said Col. Greg Soule, director of procurement and resources at the Army-run Office for Joint Unmanned Aircraft Systems for Small Opposite Ships.
After the Office’s operational requirements were validated by the Joint Requirements Oversight Council in September 2020, the JCO moved out to develop a list of skills. His plan was to initially focus on low-margin interceptors, and the Air Force was used as the lead agency in the effort.
The JCO requested information and asked for white papers with technical solutions. The office received 37 filings, Soule said.
“Some of them fit into the category and some don’t,” he said. “Then there were others that we picked that fit that category, but they were already involved in government-funded, government-sponsored contracts in the same arena. We didn’t want to see them at this demonstration. We wanted to bring in brand new ideas and products from the industry. “
This left 10 people invited to oral presentations. From this group, five were selected to take part in the demonstration in Yuma, Soule said.
However, one of the vendors picked before the demonstration because they didn’t think their product would be ready by April and another had to say goodbye at the last minute because members of his team were infected with COVID-19, Soule said.
Sign up for our newsletter for unmanned systems
Get an exclusive insight into the challenges and opportunities that drone technology offers every two weeks
Subscribe to
(please select country) United States United Kingdom Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Indian Ocean Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Christmas Island Kokos (Keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Congo Congo, Democratic Republic of the Cochin Islands Costa Rica Ivory Coast Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada G. uadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard Island and Mcdonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Korea , Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Democratic People’s Republic of Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libyan Arabs Jamahiriya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macao Macedonia, Former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Morocco, Federated States of Montserrat Macedonia Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied es Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitca irn Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar See you again Romania Russian Federation Rwanda St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Band and Principe Saudi- Arabia Senegal Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Svalbard and Jan Mayen Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Minor Outlying Islands Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela Vietnamese Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, US Wallis and Futuna Western Sahara Yemen Sambi a Zimbabwe
Thanks for registering!
×
The three remaining teams arrived a week before the demonstration to conduct flight tests, Soule said.
During the official demonstration, the systems went through 16 scenarios against a variety of threat-representative targets, ranging from fixed-wing to rotary-wing quadcopters, and a variety of different patterns such as straight-in, cross and hover modes at different speeds and heights, ” so we could have a good, rounded snapshot of each system, “said Soule.
Aurora Flight Sciences brought its class 2 unmanned quadcopter system – MIDAS – which was equipped with an air pistol, to the demonstration. When the quadcopter gets close enough to the threat, the air pistol fires a cartridge made up of two copper washers attached with 12-inch Kevlar cord. The weapon fires at a target in six rounds at high speed in order to contaminate the rotor blades of the threat system.
If the first round does not neutralize the target, the UAV can shoot subsequent rounds. If it destroys the threat, it can move to other targets, Soule said.
Elta North America, a US-based subsidiary of the Israeli company Elta Systems, included DKD – or Drone Kill Drone – in the rating. The quadcopter is smaller than MIDAS and has a network system on top. “His intent is to fly the threat and get tangled with the aim and both of them would fall to the ground,” said Soule.
The system is not reusable, he added.
The last system in the demo, Skylord Griffon by Israeli startup Xtend, also uses a net, but positions itself over the target to entangle the net in the drone’s rotors. Then the net loosens so that the quadcopter can continue on to another mission, according to Soule.
Upon completion of the demonstrations, each participant will receive a report detailing their performance against the criteria.
The Air Force, as the service leader, will welcome participating systems and other future systems for further evaluation and possible inclusion in a JCO-funded development program beginning later this year, Soule said.
The Air Force plans to submit a request for information to industry demanding systems for their next round of assessment, which will also be weighed against government solutions that have already been funded.
The JCO and the Army’s Rapid Skills and Critical Technologies Office will hold a demonstration in September to focus on other capabilities beyond interceptors with low collateral effects, Soule said. “Specific issues are still being decided,” he added. However, an RFI is expected to be released in May that will set out the priorities of skill for the event.
Comments are closed.