by BattleSpace Technology,
Rheinmetall has successfully tested the technology demonstrator version of a laser weapon built on behalf of the German Bundeswehr by firing against drones from a Boxer Infantry Fighting Vehicle. The first trials with the laser testbed were conducted several years ago at Rheinmetall’s proving ground in Unterlüß as part of a Counter-Unmanned Aircraft System (C-UAS) campaign.
The laser testbed served not only as a technology demonstrator laser weapon, but also as the basis for future R&D work at Unterlüß in Lower Saxony. It is designed so that all components of a future laser weapon system can be examined modularly. Every interface to the sensors – the radar, for example – or to the energy supply and laser source are “open” designs. This makes it possible to test every conceivable combination iteratively and then to compare the results.
The objective with the laser testbed during the test several years ago was to produce a suitable configuration for a mobile technology demonstrator with a laser output of over 10 kW for integration into a Boxer fighting vehicle. Previously, the laser testbed consisted entirely of subassemblies made by Rheinmetall. But open interface architecture makes it possible to integrate and test components from other manufacturers also.
The laser testbed consists of a 20- foot container divided into three compartments: laser, operator and infrastructure. Encompassing five 2 kW-fibre laser modules, the laser source is installed in the laser compartment. Bundled via spectral coupling, the individual laser modules achieve a total output of 10 kW, producing excellent beam quality. Rough orientation of the laser weapon station is based on data from the suite of electro-optical sensors in the weapon station. This is ready to operate around the clock.
For fine tracking, the reflection of the target irradiated by the illumination laser is evaluated in the beam guidance system and transformed into corresponding guidance signals for tracking the target. Furthermore, under conditions of functional safety, all subassemblies necessary for target engagement, e.g., beam status monitoring and target point control, were achieved for the first time within the optical beam path.
During the C-UAS campaign conducted in Unterlüß, a variety of drone types were optically tracked and neutralized at ranges of engagement of up to one kilometre. The results obtained were more than satisfactory. A demonstration was subsequently carried out in compliance with corona safety measures at Unterlüß for representatives of the Federal Ministry of Defence and the Federal Office for Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology and In-service Support. The outcome met the expectations of all participants. NATO trials Dstl standard for counter-drone systems.
As part of this NATO trialled Dstl standard for counter-drone systems. called SAPIENT, which successfully facilitated more than 70 connections between systems during technical interoperability exercises, leading to widespread industry adoption.
Originally developed by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) and Innovate UK, SAPIENT is an open software architecture that helps different sensors, interfaces and decision-making modules work together with little or no software engineering, and can improve efficiency through use of autonomy. With the misuse of small, widely available drones representing a significant and growing risk to operations and day-to-day defence activity, NATO is working with industry to develop capabilities to counter this threat, and in November 2021 undertook a trial of various counter-drone technologies and systems.
The counter-uncrewed air system technical interoperability exercise (C-UAS TIE 21) included testing SAPIENT’s Interface Control Document (ICD) as a candidate draft standard for counterdrone systems. During the demanding air defence exercise, SAPIENT proved highly successful in providing the standard for underlying information exchange.
It enabled more than 70 connections between counter-UAS (uncrewed air systems) and Command and Control (C2) systems. It also facilitated 17 advanced autonomous sensor modules (ASM) from different vendors to connect to 7 decision-making modules (DSM). Impressively, in some cases this connection was completely plug-andplay, achieving zero-second integration time.
As a result, many suppliers of counterdrone technology have now adopted the SAPIENT standard. It has already been adopted by MoD as the standard for counter-UAS technology.
David Lugton, Dstl Project Technical Authority for counter-UAS systems, said, “NATO TIE adds to the recent success of the SAPIENT deployment at Contested Urban Environment 2021 and builds on its adoption in the UK MoD C-sUAS Strategy.
The widespread voluntary adoption of SAPIENT by industry across NATO was highly impressive, paves the way to an open commercial market of SAPIENT compliant C-UAS components and places the architecture as a crucial enabler as the demand for rapid C-UAS interoperability increases across the NATO nations.” By providing a common standard for interfacing sensing, effector, fusion and C2 element, SAPIENT facilitates the use of autonomy and reduces the workload on operators. And by using the openlyavailable SAPIENT Interface Control Document, suppliers and partners can ensure they develop compatible modules, making integrations between systems quick and easy.
Dstl’s Professor Paul Thomas said, “Zerosecond integration is really important. Rather than spending months or years developing a system, by which time the threat has changed or gone away, you can simply click together these pieces and they just work at deployment time. So you can respond to a new or an emerging threat by integrating the pieces you need at the time you need them.” The NATO TV channel have produced a video article about the exercise, which includes footage of various counter-drone technologies in action. (Source: https://www.gov.uk/)
