Domestic Drone Defense Should Be A Higher Priority

This decision seems unwise. Armed drones seem like a much more plausible threat in the U.S. proper than manned warplanes, naval ships, or ground troops, although long range missiles are also a problem.

The U.S. military isn’t currently interested in fielding kinetic and directed energy capabilities, such as laser and high-power microwave weapons, surface-to-air interceptors, and gun systems, for defending domestic bases and other critical infrastructure from rapidly growing and evolving drone threats. Instead, the focus is on electronic warfare and cyber warfare, and other ‘soft-kill’ options, at least for the time being.

It is useful here to step back and think about the current counter-drone ecosystem from the perspective of tiered capabilities (and associated rules of engagement) starting at the very lowest end with systems intended to increase situational awareness, typically through passive signal detection and tracking. This is where a drone is detected and tracked via its own electronic emissions. The next step up is active sensors, generally radars, that can track the drone regardless of it emitting radio frequency energy or not. Both passive and active systems are often paired with electro-optical and infrared cameras to help with positively identifying targets. . .

Moving further up the capability ladder, there are non-kinetic ‘soft kill’ defense options like electronic warfare, followed by directed energy weapons like lasers and high-power microwaves, and finally more traditional kinetic effectors like drone-hunting drones, anti-aircraft guns, and surface-to-air missiles. There are some outlier systems like drones that might fire things like nets, streamers or goo, or use electronic pulses to disable a drone, which fall somewhere near the same category directed energy.

“There are kinetic options…. They’re just not here,” NORTHCOM’s Mayes said. “Many of them [existing counter-drone systems] do have the ability to integrate with a kinetic type [of capability]. …. But again, it’s not something we were super interested in that regard.”

He highlighted the 20mm Vulcan cannon-armed Centurion C-RAM (Counter-Rocket, Artillery, and Mortar) and the Coyote counter-drone interceptor as being among such capabilities in U.S. military service now.

From Warzone.