Bloomberg
(Bloomberg) -- The proliferation of uncrewed systems in the Ukraine-Russia war has highlighted the importance of drone defense capabilities. But the dilemma militaries around the world face is that the attack weapons tend to be far cheaper than the response to destroy them.
Drone costs can range from just a few hundred to several thousand dollars, and their price tag is rapidly depreciating as innovation and mass production pick up. That’s a fraction of the outlays for most air defense missiles, which at the high end command price tags of tens of millions for a single shot.
Efforts to solve that conundrum were on display this week at the DSEI defense expo in London, where the halls were packed with lasers, missiles, jammers and even other drones designed to defeat small, uncrewed threats. What they all had in common was an attempt to bring down the “cost per kill.”
Drones — or uncrewed systems, as the larger versions are often called — have come to the forefront of warfare since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. As the conflict chews through more conventional battlefield tools like artillery, both sides of the conflict have leaned heavily on drones for surveillance, defense and attack missions.
“In Ukraine, it’s really scaled drone-on-drone warfare,” said Jan-Hendrik Boelens, CEO of anti-drone company Alpine Eagle GmbH. “And our interceptor is essentially a small drone, so it has the price tag of a small drone.”
Electronic warfare, including jamming and spoofing that confuse drones’ controls systems, is another defensive method. Dozens of companies at DSEI promoted such technology, which has the benefit that it can potentially intercept multiple drones at once.
“It would then essentially wipe out the electronics in the entire swarm, and they fall to the ground,” Mike Sewart, the chief technology officer for Thales SA’s UK subsidiary. “Rather than a point-and-shoot model where you are literally targeting those drones one by one.”
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