Army Video Report: Stryker Live-Fire Attacks & Destroys Drones

By Kris Osborn

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*****Scout Warrior Report Below HERE *****

A number of emerging short-range-air-defense armed vehicle platforms destroyed enemy drone targets during a recent Army demonstration at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. – as part of an accelerated Army effort to better arm mobile ground combat vehicles with close-in air defense technology.

The demonstrations, which involved live-fire target exercises from a handful of vendors, were designed to help the Army fast-track a new Short Range Air Defense, or SHORAD, system to better defend ground maneuvering targets against an increasingly wide range of aerial threats. This can include low flying enemy aircraft such as helicopters, drones and other incoming attacks, Army and White Sands Missile Range weapons developers tell Scout Warrior.

One senior Army official familiar with the demonstration explained the service’s need to quickly develop a stepped-up mobile, vehicle-mounted, maneuverable short range air defense capability in light of the fast-changing global threat circumstances. Given that counterinsurgency tactics have taken center stage during the last 15 years of ground wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army now recognizes a need to better protect ground combat formations against more advanced, near-peer type enemy threats – such as enemy drones, helicopters or low-flying aircraft.

“We atrophied air defense if you think about it. With more near-peer major combat operations threats on the horizon, the need for SHORAD and high-tier weapons like THAAD and PATRIOT comes back to the forefront. This is a key notion of maneuverable SHORAD – if you are going to maneuver you need an air defense capability able to stay up with a formation,” the senior Army official told Warrior in an interview.