After several commercial Unmanned Aircraft Systems detonated near the Nicolas Maduro, the president of Venezuela, in many countries has become visible a growing interest in the use of counter-drone technologies.
Today’s commercially available UAVs can carry surveillance cameras or a brick of powerful explosives.
The US Army has previously seized of the counter-drone issue but now has intensified its efforts to obtain modern microwave weapons to disable or destroy a drone.
According to the Fox News, the U.S. Army is planning to purchase a Counter Unmanned Aircraft System (C-UAS) from Lockheed Martin with the goal to “field UASs with payloads capable of negating adversary UAS,” the Army said in its solicitation notice.
According to a pre-solicitation posted on 3 August, the U.S. Government intends to solicit and negotiate with Lockheed Martin, for high-powered-microwave (HPM) based airborne C-UAS, including the necessary development, integration and support required to meet the government’s performance requirements to field UASs with payloads capable of negating adversary UAS in in a timely and efficient manner.
Unmanned aircraft system payloads under consideration include explosives, nets, entanglers/streamers, and high-powered-microwave (HPM) sources.
The C-UAS designed to defend U.S. and allied forces and critical infrastructure from enemy UAV surveillance, electronic warfare, and conventional attack.
Drones may be small – some weighing less than five pounds – but they can cause devastating results if they are armed with weapons, and when there are 10…20…100… in close proximity. Drone swarms can be remotely operated from miles away, fly autonomously, or they may accompany ground vehicles and other aircraft that attempt to harm our troops. And only one of these remote-controlled weapons needs to get through to be potentially lethal.
“Terrorists and other militants can operate small, inexpensive drones loaded with weapons to threaten U.S. and allied forces on the ground,” said Daniel Miller, chief engineer at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works. “Because of their size, these drones are difficult to see, hard to catch on radar, and hard to shoot at with conventional weapons, particularly in swarms.”
Leonardo DRS has announced that company also received an additional $13 million to continue engineering and testing a vehicle-mounted counter-UAV system that the U.S. Army hopes will protect soldiers from small drones, according to a July 31 Defense Department statement.