U.S. Air Force tests commercial drone killer in Arizona

U.S. Air Force Special Warfare Airmen tested a commercial off-the-shelf kinetic counter-drone interceptor in Arizona earlier this month.

The proof-of-concept event brought together Airmen from the 48th Rescue Squadron, 7th Air Support Operations Squadron, and 316th Civil Engineer Squadron Explosive Ordnance Disposal at the Arizona Army National Guard Florence Military Reservation. The exercise integrated a commercial kinetic interceptor with an expeditionary counter-small UAS capability to address what the Air Force describes as critical capability gaps for small teams operating outside the wire — forward-deployed elements that lack access to the fixed-site air defense systems that protect larger bases and installations.

Among the systems evaluated was the Guardian-1 Interceptor from Powerus, a counter-UAS platform whose founder Brett Velicovich described the test publicly after it occurred: “A beautiful sight. Our interceptor drone locking onto a target drone high above a U.S. military base. Clean skies, pure precision. This is next-gen air defense in action.”

The target being intercepted, based on imagery from the exercise, was simulating a long-range one-way attack drone of the Shahed type — the Iranian-designed loitering munition that Russia has used extensively against Ukrainian infrastructure and that has become the template for the low-cost one-way attack drone problem facing military forces worldwide.

The Guardian-1 is a small, fast, precision-guided interceptor built around a straightforward operational concept: get to the threat quickly, guide onto it precisely, and destroy it before it reaches its target. The system weighs 1.3 kilograms without battery and 2.65 kilograms with battery — light enough to be carried and operated by a small team in an austere environment without vehicle support or fixed infrastructure. Cruise speed is 160 kilometers per hour, with a burst speed reaching 290 to 340 kilometers per hour — fast enough to close on the kind of slow-flying loitering munitions that constitute the primary threat in the Group 1 through 3 small UAS category. Maximum range is 15 kilometers, maximum altitude is 5,000 meters, and endurance reaches 28 minutes unloaded and 9 minutes with a 0.5 kilogram payload aboard. The guidance architecture combines radar-assisted target designation, manual launch procedures, and camera-guided final approach — a layered approach that allows the operator to acquire, track, and engage without requiring sophisticated ground infrastructure.

The operational problem the Florence Military Reservation exercise addressed is one that has been growing more acute as the proliferation of low-cost one-way attack drones has accelerated. Small forward-deployed teams — the kind of Special Warfare Airmen who operate with partner forces, conduct personnel recovery, provide fire support coordination, or handle explosive ordnance disposal in contested environments — face drone threats without the layered air defense that protects main operating bases. A fixed Patriot battery or an Iron Dome system is not going to deploy with a six-person combat controller team operating in a remote location. What that team needs is something a person can carry, set up quickly, and operate with minimal training against the same category of drone that has been used to attack positions across multiple active conflict zones.

The Group 1 through 3 designation covers a wide range of unmanned aircraft — from small quadcopters at the low end to larger tactical drones weighing up to 600 kilograms at the upper boundary of Group 3. The middle of that range, where Shahed-type one-way attack drones sit, represents the threat that has most dramatically outpaced existing counter-UAS solutions available to light forces. These systems are cheap enough to be used in numbers, slow enough to be intercepted if the right tool is available, and lethal enough to kill personnel and destroy light equipment when they reach their targets. A kinetic interceptor that costs a fraction of the drone it’s defeating, weighs under three kilograms, and can be operated by a small team in the field addresses that problem at the scale and price point where it actually matters.

Powerus has positioned the Guardian-1 for production at a scale that reflects the volume problem inherent in countering drone swarms and high-frequency one-way attack campaigns. Current production capacity stands at 1,000 units per month, with a stated plan to reach 5,000 units per month by month four of production scaling. At those volumes, the system becomes something that can be stocked and expended rather than carefully husbanded — the same economics that make the drones it defeats so effective when deployed by adversaries.

The Shahed-type target drone intercepted above the Arizona desert on that exercise range carried no warhead and threatened no one. The category of drone it represented has killed people and destroyed infrastructure across three continents. A 2.65-kilogram interceptor that can catch it at 15 kilometers and 5,000 meters is a meaningful answer to a problem that has been looking for one.