Brandon J. Weichert
Many nations are working to develop “soft-kill” countermeasures against drones, which rely on disabling them through electronic interference rather than physically shooting them down.
China continues building massive numbers of drone and anti-drone systems as part of its growing arsenal of weapons with which to counter (and possibly deter) the Americans and their allies in any future war.
One such system is the URS-680, which is being reported as a short-range, soft-kill counter-drone/low-altitude air defense system. According to public reports on the new Chinese system, it is meant to detect small UAVs out to around five kilometers and jam or disrupt them out to roughly three or four kilometers. The system is designed to operate autonomously and to protect fixed sites or nearby forces.
Everyone Is Working on Anti-Drone Systems
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, unmanned systems have become ubiquitous both there and throughout the world’s many other battlefields. These systems not only serve as useful surveillance tools, but can be fashioned into quick strike, highly lethal systems that can overfly dense enemy formations, and do significant amounts of damage without endangering the lives of friendly servicemembers. What’s more, in the specific case of smaller drones, they are hard to detect and, unless tracked as early as possible, difficult to defend against.
That is why every militarily significant nation in the world, from Russia to Turkey to China to the states of the NATO alliance, is working feverishly on counter-drone systems that fixate on destroying these small drones. What has been discovered after the three years of fighting in Ukraine is that, while it is possible to track and shoot down small drones, very often the only weapons available are far more expensive missiles, or else small arms fire with a far lower probability of success.
What Is the Soft-Kill Approach in Attacking Drones?
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