US Army, Private Firms Demonstrate Counter-Drone Prototype Capabilities

The Joint Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft System Office has completed demonstrating the capabilities of prototype counter-unmanned aerial systems solutions.

Clear Align, ELTA and Anduril are among the businesses that signed up their prototypes for the demonstration. The solutions featured at least four sensor types: electro-optical and infrared cameras, radars and radio-frequency scanners. The C-UAS prototypes could be used in a wide range of scenarios, including scrambling a drone’s GPS signal or its command link to a human operator.

Held from June 3 to 28 at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, the demonstration, dubbed Demonstration Five, saw participating prototypes undergo several tests, including repeated swarm attacks, Breaking Defense reported.

Col. Michael Parent, chief of acquisitions and resources at the JCO, said that the demonstration is the most challenging to date. He added that the prototypes showed maturity and displayed themselves as a better solution to address threats.

In July 2023, the JCO hosted a similar industry demonstration to identify solutions to improve the United States’ capability to address hostile UAS. The event saw participating vendors test their solutions on a wide range of threats, including defeating adversarial drones at longer distances and higher altitudes.