Matthew Cox
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.—To succeed in future warfare likely to feature millions of unmanned aerial systems, the Pentagon should avoid getting into a one-for-one race with China and develop a quiver of options for downing many enemy drones at one time, defense and industry officials said last week at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference.
The Air Force, along with others, has been tracking the massive impact of small, mass-produced drones on Ukraine’s fight against Russia, said Col. Jim Price, special assistant to the director of operations at Air Combat Command, focusing on preparing Airmen for aerial threats.
The small drones that have become ubiquitous in Ukraine can be difficult to track and quickly evolve to adapt to known defenses such as electronic warfare, said Price.
“Ukraine’s Operation Spiderweb highlighted the strategic implications of disregarding UAS, specifically small UAS, as a threat,” Price said, referring to the June drone strikes by Ukraine on Russian air bases. “They successfully destroyed multiple strategic aircraft deep inside of Russia. The propagation of this cheap and often untraceable technology requires generational evolution and how nations operate to address this threat—everyone from policy makers to warfighters are weighing in on the impact being made by this evolving technology.”
Industry counter-UAS experts on the panel agreed that there is “no silver bullet” for countering drones in all tactical domains. Drones-makers have learned to adapt to jamming by using multiple frequencies and fiber optic technology. High-power microwaves are effective but can cause collateral damage to cell phone networks in urban areas. Lasers have also proven effective and offer deep magazines so the cost per shot is low, but the systems can be expensive. Kinetics like missiles have worked in the Middle East but are too expensive for targeting drones that are produced at a fraction of the cost.
Most of the experts agreed the government and industry need to think differently than the one-for-one approach that has worked in the past but is likely to fail in the next conflict.
The Pentagon has launched many initiatives to counter the drone threat in recent years, yielding weapons systems ranging from hand-held Dronebusters to trailer-size high-power microwave systems like the Tactical High-power Operational Responder, or THOR.
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