Lethal Drones: Far from the Wright Brothers | Halek Hossain

 

In 1903, the Wright brothers invented the first successful airplane. By 1914, just over a decade after its successful trials, the aircraft would be used in combat in World War I, with reconnaissance, bombing and aerial combat capabilities. It is classified by most historians as a revolution in military affairs. The battlefield, which previously included land and sea, now included the air, permanently changing the way warfare was conducted. With new technology comes new tactics, policies, strategies, procedures and structures.

Twenty years ago, unmanned aerial systems (UAS) were far less common and capable. Today, their threat potential and risk profile have increased significantly. UAS are becoming increasingly more affordable and capable, with improved optics, greater speed, longer range and increased lethality.

The United States has long been a proponent of using unmanned aerial systems, with the MQ-9 Reaper and MQ-1 Predator adept at combat operations, and fielding smaller squad-based UAS such as the RQ-11 Raven and Switchblade. While optimization of friendly UAS capabilities can yield great results on the battlefield, adversary use of unmanned aerial systems can be devastating.

Its use by non-state actors such as the Houthi rebels in Yemen and the Islamic State group in the Middle East has begun to raise serious concerns.

Now, in addition to non-state actors, there are multiple examples of peer-to-peer conflicts where UAS have been fielded to great effect. The use of Azerbaijan's Israeli Harops and Turkish Bayraktar TB2 unmanned aerial systems in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resulted in what many described as a decisive victory in terms of territory gained and casualties. UAS used in this conflict have set the stage, with many countries working with Israel and Turkey to acquire this game-changing capability. In the Ukraine conflict, the Bayraktar TB2 showed great promise, dealing devastating losses against Russian infiltration.

Today, “everyone has access to unmanned aerial systems. They are very easy to kill," Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville said in March. As manned aircraft dominated the battlefield, so did anti-aircraft weapons. Similarly, the proliferation of UAS across the battlefield has led to the need for counter-unmanned aerial systems.

solution

To combat this threat, the DoD established a grouping system for UAS with five tiers, each tier corresponding to size, speed and maximum altitude gain. Conventional air defense artillery capabilities and tactics may involve larger Group 4 and 5 UASs; However, involving groups 1 to 3, now defined as small UAS, a new approach is required.

Each service independently began efforts to acquire service-unique counter-small unmanned aircraft system materiel solutions and began developing associated employment strategies and tactics. Each service responds to threats individually based on understanding the problem from applicable intelligence reports and observing the employment of small UAS on the battlefield.

The services initiate research, often with unintended overlap, resulting in unnecessary and higher development costs across DoD and less effective and efficient training and employment in support of joint forces operations.

In November 2019, to address this constantly evolving threat and reduce duplication and redundancy, the Secretary of Defense appointed the Secretary of the Army as the DOD Executive Agent for Counter-Small UAS. To accomplish this mission, the Secretary of the Army established the Joint Counter-Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office. This office leads the development of flexible, agile, and securely integrated emerging joint counter-small UAS capabilities with an emphasis on rapid innovation, synchronizing material and nonmaterial solutions, and fostering partnerships, which enable the safety, benefits, and protection of DoD personnel, host nations, and sudden position.

comprehensive strategy

Just one year after its establishment, the Joint Counter-Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office released the first DoD counter-small UAS strategy. This unclassified document serves to align DoD counter-small UAS stakeholders through a jointly developed strategic framework and three strategic objectives. These objectives are:

Enhance joint forces through innovation and collaboration to protect DoD personnel, assets and facilities at home, host nations, and contingency locations.

Develop material and nonmaterial solutions that facilitate the safe and secure execution of DoD missions and deny adversaries the ability to disrupt joint force objectives.

Build and expand DoD's relationships with allies and partners to protect American interests at home and abroad.

These objectives must be achieved through three key efforts: prepare the force, protect the force, and form the team. These lines of effort are outlined in depth in the Implementation Plan, a supporting document to the DoD Counter-Small UAS Strategy. These two documents, approved by the Secretary of Defense, ensure coordination of joint counter-small UAS efforts and provide necessary guidance and direction to stakeholders for counter-small UAS efforts.

System-of-systems approach

In the business of war, there are no silver bullets. With this in mind, through research, development, testing and evaluation, the Joint Counter-Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office and Services are identifying systems that are interoperable and work within a defined system of systems that will address the threat of UAS use by adversaries. across a wide range of situations and environments.

Using a shared command and control architecture interoperable across joint forces, the systems being developed employ a broad range of detect, track, detect and defeat capabilities that, when combined with classic air defense tactics and principles, are able to create a layered defense. To mitigate a wide range of threats.

To accelerate progress toward this system-of-systems approach, the Joint Counter-Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office works to reduce redundancies and streamline funding for the development of materiel solutions. In its initial phase, the office conducted a baseline assessment of current efforts and used that assessment to focus DoD funding on the development of 10 identified systems, which form the initial joint counter-small UAS capability.

To fully address the counter-small UAS mission, these 10 primary systems have a variety of capabilities to include detection, engagement, and command and control. In terms of engagement, selected systems include directed power, electronic warfare, and kinetic capabilities. The primary 10 systems cover hand-held, mounted and fixed-site options to ensure warfighters can defend themselves against small UAS threats at any time during any conflict.

Technical Exhibition

In an effort to ensure continued progress across select counter-small UAS capabilities and that DoD stays ahead of threats, the Joint Counter-Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office conducts a technical demonstration twice a year. The event, jointly hosted by the Office and the Army's Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office and participating services, allows industry to demonstrate developmental capabilities in a fully instrumented test range with predefined technical focus areas. Past focus areas have included hand-held solutions, low-collateral effect interceptors, high-power microwaves (a component of the managed energy engagement concept), and counter-small unmanned aircraft systems as a service.

These events provide a platform for both traditional and non-traditional companies to help accelerate the advancement of DoD's counter-small UAS portfolio by closing gaps, informing requirements and promoting innovation.

The most recent demonstration took place April 4-22 at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona. It focuses on ground-based, high-power microwave systems and a concept known as counter-small unmanned aircraft systems as a service. Ground-based high-power microwave systems on display had the capability to generate electromagnetic pulses from a fixed ground location with sufficient power to destroy or defeat airborne small UAS threats.

The Counter-Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems as a service concept includes contractor-owned, government-operated counter-small UAS capabilities used to protect specific locations by detecting, tracking, identifying, and defeating small unmanned aircraft system threats. Future demonstrations will be conducted as a joint counter-small unmanned aircraft systems office, and the service will identify focus areas that offer the best potential for transforming emerging solutions into production capabilities.

Rapid Response Team

Another important initiative within the Joint Counter-Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office is the Rapid Response Team. The team is a collaborative effort between the office and the Defense Digital Service, and works to triage gaps in counter-small UAS identified by the services and combatant commands. These gaps are filled through a mix of software, additional training, hardware upgrades, etc.

At the request of theater leaders, the team traveled to Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Indo-Pacific to assist in in-depth analysis of operational and threat environments, technical and materiel recommendations, and strategy, tactics, approach evaluations, and changes. and training that informs leaders within combatant commands of current counter-small UAS best practices and developments.

Army effort

The Secretary of the Army, while the DoD's executive agent, is also aware of the Army's service-specific requirements for counter small UAS efforts. “For example, the Army has to be very focused on challenges like counter-UAS. … These are absolutely areas that we need to work on in terms of developing our capabilities,” Army Secretary Christine Warmuth said during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in May 2021. There are Army-specific counter-small UAS initiatives and efforts that must also be highlighted, in addition to the work the Army is doing as an executive agent.

In the context of the proliferation of small UAS threats across the battlefield, the Army approaches counter-small UAS from both a force protection and an air defense perspective. With that said, some select responsibilities associated with counter-small UAS would ideally be MOS agnostic, with capabilities integrated across all directorates and formations, from squads to theaters. Every soldier has some level of responsibility to protect their units, missions and facilities from small UAS threats.

Leveraging existing experience within the Army, the Fires Center of Excellence, in conjunction with the Joint Counter-Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office, will support joint forces in non-materiel counter-small UAS efforts while addressing materiel requirements, funding and procurement efforts. Process through appropriate service-specific channels. These unplanned efforts include joint training and doctrine establishment.

As one of the initiatives directed by the DoD Counter-Small UAS Strategy and Implementation Plan, the Fires Center of Excellence, with support from the Joint Counter-Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office, will move counter-small UAS training from the Yuma Proving Ground to Fort Sill, Oklahoma. The establishment of the Joint Counter-Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Academy at Fort Sill will not only improve Soldier self-defense capabilities, but will also provide comprehensive counter-small UAS training for joint warfighters across all services and potentially expand into the future. Allies and partners.

Critical work

As the global environment becomes increasingly complex and dangerous, the work the Joint Counter-Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office is doing in the counter-small UAS mission area is critical to ensuring that joint warfighters stay ahead of their adversaries. Gen. Michael Garrett, commanding general of U.S. Army Forces Command, wrote in an April 2021 RMY Magazine Commentary, "We cannot expect to be ready for the next fight depending on the equipment, training, tactics, and operations we prepared toward the last fight."

As seen in the conflicts in Eastern Europe over the past few years, the use of small UAS can decisively turn the tide of war in short order. Ongoing and planned counter-small UAS initiatives will ensure the success of US forces in current and future conflicts. These initiatives are bringing an enterprise approach that enables protection of personnel, components and missions from the growing threats and hazards associated with the rapid growth of small UAS technology.

DoD is making progress in building a force trained and equipped to deal with an undeniable threat represented by adversary small unmanned aerial systems. But this threat is fast and ever-evolving and will require a dynamic approach that can sustain efforts across DoD, allies and partners, industry and academia. This is a fight we can and must win.