Countering UASs – Summary of an article by Gregor Ferguson for Wings magazine.
In an era where uncrewed aerial systems (UASs), have proliferated and flourished on battlefields from Europe to the Red Sea, the technical challenge now is not so much to weaponise UASs, as to eliminate them effectively and cheaply. Hence the Australian Defence’s Project LAND156 – Counter Small Uncrewed Aerial Systems (C-S-UAS), which is now under way.
Defence’s aim is to identify and then disable or destroy small UASs on the battlefield as quickly and cheaply as possible. That means without using expensive anti-air or anti-missile missiles unless absolutely necessary.
The project’s timeline would see a systems integration partner providing a baseline Counter Small Uncrewed Aerial Systems capability by the end of 2025 and a complete minimum viable capability by the end of 2030. The successful company will be Defence’s strategic partner and must deliver a developmental command and control system, including the vital situational awareness (SA), that is capable of integrating all of the sensors and effectors acquired by the end of this year under what Defence terms a Capability Target State 1. The system must also be able to integrate any sensors and effectors acquired subsequently, at least to the end of 2030.
The main threat are drones with a maximum weight of about 25kg and a maximum speed of about 250kt. A drone that size can conduct intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions or attack anything from individual tanks and vehicles to flight lines with aircraft worth multiple millions of dollars. Defence wants a low cost per kill, with a very low chance of fratricide and an ability to integrate the C-S-UAS system with short-range ground-based air defence and integrated air and missile defence systems, both the ADF’s and those of its allies.
Nearly 80 percent of these small drones can be disrupted by electronic jamming, and that’s what Australian counter-UAS and situational awareness specialist DroneShield specialises in. Its passive omni-directional RfPatrol Mk 2 detects drones out to a range of 4km while its directional DroneGun Mk4 jams the wi-fi or global system for mobile control and navigation signals controlling hostile drones out to a range of 1km (a bigger version has a range of 2km). The DroneGun Mk4 can also handle drone swarms because its effects are not focused on a single target; anything within its operational range and field of regard is affected equally.
Depending on their pre-programmed control logic, and if the jamming signal is maintained, drones would probably either fly autonomously back to their launch site or simply sink to the ground. An agile force can exploit either outcome.
The situational awareness tools deployed by DroneShield are based around the DroneSentry-C2 Enterprise Command and Control system, which can handle multiple sites, RfPatrol Mk2 and the DroneSentry-X Mk2 radar. That tool set helps build up a realtime picture of drone activity in a specific area, even if the drone concerned don’t use RF signals for guidance and detonation, and it can integrate other sensors and effectors as these become available.
The evolution of drone warfare is making ‘hard kill’ systems essential. DroneShield says it can integrate systems such as the M230 Bushmaster 30mm cannon and High Energy Laser from EOS Defence’s Titanis, and the AIM Defence Fractl highpower anti-drone laser. These can counter drones that don’t employ wi-fi or GSM communications control signals. A growing number of relatively short-range drones are also using wire guidance, similar to a Milan or Tow anti-tank missile, to avoid radio emissions and interference.
The Australian Defence Force has signed a three-year contract with DroneShield’s rival Anduril to trial its C-UAS system at RAAF Base Darwin. Anduril’s offering is based on the capability-as-a-service business model it is using as systems integration partner in the US Special Operations Command CUxS program. Delivered in just 15 weeks, Anduril’s Darwin system is powered by the company’s well-understood Lattice OS open architecture software platform which lies at the heart of other capabilities such as the Ghost Shark XL -AUV it is developing for the Royal Australian Navy in Sydney.
DroneShield is offering a similar business model, suggesting it could deliver Anduril’s functionality at a significantly lower price. It is negotiating an agreement with services company Ventia to conduct 24/7 monitoring and believes it could deliver base solutions within six months of contract award and complete the roll-out to as many as 104 separate ADF bases in 18-24 months.
Project LAND156 is an important step toward Australia’s baseline defence against small drones on the battlefield by 2030.
