By Kris Osborn, President, Warrior
Drone swarm attacks are designed to be essentially indefensible, as they overwhelm enemy radar, blanket areas with explosives and use simple redundancy and volume to defeat a wide array of integrated defenses. The threat has only continued to intensify at a staggering pace as warzone innovators integrate new levels of autonomy, guidance and weaponry into large, fast-moving and increasingly “coordinated” groups of attack drones.
Certainly the Pentagon and others have noticed the impact small drones are having upon the war in Ukraine, and it is by no means surprising that DoD is massively revving up its counter-drone effort. This involves formal partnerships with universities, industry partners and military innovators to help identify, fast-track and deploy cutting edge methods of defending fixed sites, Forward Operating Bases and even armored formations on the move.
The cutting edge of C-UAS, as it is called, is increasingly involving AI to exponentially increase the speed, efficiency and lethality with which drone swarms can be countered. By essentially bouncing incoming sensor data off of a vast data base, performing analytics and organize otherwise disconnected sets of data, an AI-enabled system can massively fast-track, streamline and optimize C-UAS.
AI-enabled systems can greatly expedite operational functionality of often-referred to “non-kinetic” countermeasures such as EW or High Powered Microwave. At the same time, by making discernments and performing analysis in milliseconds, an AI-enabled system can also verify a threat and recommend a commensurate, kinetic interceptor, proximity fuse or“area” weapons such as a Close-in-Weapons-System Phalanx might be best suited to counter a drone swarm in a given circumstance.
Pentagon C-UAS Strategy
A need to leverage AI, advanced computing and systems engineering is woven throughout the Pentagon’s Dec. 24 Department of Defense Strategy for Countering Unmanned Systems.
“Enabled by growing commercial innovation and the increasing sophistication of artificial intelligence (AI), autonomy, and networking technology, unmanned systems are fundamentally changing how militaries of all sizes, capacities, and capabilities – as well as non-state actors – achieve their objectives,” the text of the strategy document writes.
The conceptual aim of the strategy aligns closely with DoD’s Replicator 2 effort emphasized in Sept. 2024, as it seeks supplement breakthroughs with integrated swarming technologies with new generations of C-UAS solutions and tactics.
“The Department will deliver robust counter unmanned systems at speed and scale, including by leveraging rapid acquisition approaches; prioritizing integrated, open, modular solutions; employing systems engineering and predictive analytics,” the document states.
Pentagon & Industry C-UAS Teaming
Industry and the Pentagon are working on this together to test new applications as technology surges forward to enable new possibilities. Many of the Pentagon’s industry partners regularly seek to “anticipate” DoD requirements, close capability gaps and essentially “solve” tactical problems before they are even fully articulated by Pentagon weapons developers. This way, DoD industry partners can seek to “offer” solutions to its military customers and demonstrate or test promising new systems.
One identified problem associated with drone swarm defense relates to the key question of “magazine size,” meaning a countermeasure system needs to have sufficient ammunition, bullets, laser beams or electromagnetic “pulses” to defeat a large volume of drones at one time. The Commanding Officer of Carrier Strike Group two, Rear Adm. Javon Hakimsedeh had first hand experience with this while commanding US Naval forces in the Red Sea in 2025; “Hak,” as he’s called, told Warrior in an interview in 2024 that new tactics and weapons applications were learned during critical instances wherein US Navy warships defended against Houthi drone attacks.
“Probably the biggest consideration from a war fighting perspective is, you know, the size of your magazine or magazine capacity. You know, you’ve got to be able to have enough bullets to be able to shoot those down,” Hak told Warrior.
This challenge with drone defense is one of a number of threat scenarios industry innovators are trying to address, as is the case with a recently unveiled new C-UAS System being tested by Lockheed Martin. The new application involves a calibrated blend of hardware and software to optimize a series of “layered” drone countermeasures and “pair” sensors and “effectors” using AI, advanced software and a suite of sensors and weapons intended to “detect” and “destroy” enemy drone swarms. The system is so new that Lockheed does not yet have a name for it, but developers describe the form factor as one or two “pelican” brief kinds of transportable cases designed to instantly network with sensors, RF data links, radar system and both kinetic and non-kinetic efforts.
New Lockheed C-UAS
In February of 2025, Lockheed conducted a fixed-site “test-event” with the new system defending an area of eight square miles against drone swarm targets, Tyler Griffin, Lockheed Martin’s C-UAS Director, told Warrior in an interview.
“We showed detect, control, engage with one specific layer of effectors. Now we are accelerating the development of additional layers and pairing with radar, EO/IR and passive RF. We are also exploring additional low-collateral defeat mechanisms such as directed energy applications and engaging drone on drone,” Griffin told Warrior.
Griffin explained that the Lockheed software is engineered to employ a multitude of effectors as needed and pair them together as needed as threats approach.
This new system seems particularly well-suited to support dismounted groups of soldiers on the move or mechanized formations needing C-UAS while maneuvering in warfare. By using such a small form factor, and an AI-enabled ability to network or “interface” with a wide sphere of countermeasures, the new system could offer new C-UAS options for commanders adjusting tactics to address the changing threat.
Sure enough, adapting tactics was also a key emphasis for Navy Commanders in the Red Sea, who recognized that technologies, training and concepts of operation need to rapidly evolve to counter large numbers of drones at one time. Along with ensuring a sufficient magazine to counter “large numbers” of attacking drones, Hak also emphasized that the Red Sea experience is driving discussion about new tactics and methods of expanding drone defenses.
“How do we expand the options that a sailor has to be able to take care of a drone? And I think in the near term, it’s probably going to be something along the lines of a gun system or a kinetic way to do it with guns and ordnance, but the long -term, I’d love to see things like directed energy, you know, something that can just recharge and give you that almost infinite magazine size, right? You don’t have to worry about your magazine size, because if you can keep generating the power to be able to launch your directed energy, if you will. “ Hakimsadeh said.
Lockheed Concept of Operation
The concept of operation informing Lockheed’s C-UAS offering seems aligned with “Hak’s” description of the changing drone threat and the need to expand options. The ConOps for these scenarios seem focused on defending against a swarm of inbound drones in a layered, software centric manager.
Advanced AI-enabled computing is able to assist with what Griffin referred to as TEWA for Threat, Evaluation, Weapon Assignment. In this instance, otherwise disaggregated pools of incoming sensor data can be aggregated, organized, analyzed and transmitted to human decision-makers in milliseconds. This means organized sensor data, arriving through different and otherwise disconnected transport layers, can be integrated into a single, organized analysis designed to “optimize” drone defenses, a series of coordinated countermeasures and use of effectors as needed.
An AI-enabled system, which can bounce information off of a database and perform “analytics” to recommend solutions, conduct analysis and make necessary identifications, can also be used to perform what Griffen described as a kind of “decluttering” of sensor return images and data by discerning relevant from irrelevant information. This is why Griffin described the system as software-centric, because advanced computer technology can analyze, pair and use different sets of layered defense technologies as needed for any given threat.
For instance, perhaps a given attack scenario takes place in a foggy or snowy combat scenario wherein lasers would not be effective? Perhaps an area is heavily populated, something which might require a non-kinetic solution to minimize explosive fragmentation to minimize collateral damage.
In technical terms, this becomes possible through the application of what Griffin referred to as API, or Application Programming Interface, a standard set of protocols and computing “language” which allows otherwise disconnected sensors to interface. An AI-enabled system can massively fast-track, streamline and expedite these operations. This means the system is built to be what weapons developers call “modular,” meaning the technical infrastructure and parameters are configured with an “openness” to integrate new and existing sensors, weapons and applications as they arrive. This foundation is intended to enable Lockheed developers to bring in what Griffin called the “best of breed” to create a faster, more agile C-UAS solution.
“The computing infrastructure and operator interface allows for expeditionary operations and enables integration with partners’ air defense systems and ability to bring existing sensors into the is layered approach,” Griffin told Warrior.
Integration with other echelons is key as well, Griffin explained, because although Lockheed’s C-UAS is primarily focused on closer-in defense, it is engineered to interface with higher-level echelons such as wider area or “theater” based missile defense such as the Patriot system.
The aim is to best position AI and software-empowered systems and networks to adapt to the pace at which drone swarm attacks are becoming more sophisticated.
“Obviously drones have been around for a while and we’ve been training to deal with drones. But I think what we have started to recognize, what the Red Sea really taught us was it’s not going to be just one or two drones, it’s going to be a lot more. So you got to be able to train to deal with a lot of those (drones),” Rear Adm. Javon “Hak” Hakimsadeh told Warrior in 2024 in an interview about his Carrier Strike Group’s Red Sea deployment.
Kris Osborn is President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a highly qualified expert in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University
