Kris Osborn
High powered counter-drone targeting scopes for the M4 rifle, tank protecting “cage” armor to create explosions “away” from an armored vehicles under drone attack, tailored EW transmissions designed to disable or “jam” drone swarms and even power-scaled laser weapons built to incinerate enemy drones …..are all critical topics now being analyzed in great depth by combat experts, weapons developers, Army academics and experienced combat operators at the service’s fast-evolving Counter UAS University at Fort Sill Okla.
The focus of the University is multifaceted in that it incorporates conceptual, strategic, tactical and operational variables … and the intersections between them … as areas of focused analysis. The scholars at C-UAS focus on new technologies employed in current wars such as Ukraine with a mind to better understanding modern threats and emerging concepts of operation.
“The threat is evolving so quickly. It's, you know, what we always say is what we learn today will be irrelevant tomorrow…. and that's kind of the way it is. Electronic warfare, high powered microwave and directed energy lasers are all capabilities that are being developed and obviously all at different stages of development,” Lt. Col. John Peterson, Director, Joint Counter UAS University, told Warrior in an interview. “We do primarily use both non kinetic and kinetic capabilities, and that's what we train here, EW is, you know, a capability that we focus on with the systems that we train on here at the schoolhouse along with some handheld kinetic weapons. We also train through simulation.”
Small Arms to Counter Drones
Peterson emphasized that, oftentimes, a combination or series of layered countermeasures is the optimal or most effective defense against incoming drone attacks. For closer-in attack drones approaching convoys, dismounted troops or vehicle formations, the Army now has hand-held and crew-served counter-drone weapon scopes called “Smart Shooters.” There are several different kinds of Smart shooters now at various stages of development, one of which is built by Israeli-based SmartShooter called the “SMASH” 200L . The Army has formally acquired the SMASH 200L and is currently experimenting with several kinds of AI-enabled, weapon-mounted counter-drone technologies.
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