U.S. Aggressively Ramps Up Land-to-Air Drone Destroying Firepower in Germany

Apache Attack Helos& B-21 Stealth Bombers Could Share Raytheon Common Computing

By Kris Osborn – Warrior Maven

(Washington D.C.) Hellfire, Stinger and Javelin missiles will deploy with new drone-killing, counter-air mission possibilities now that the Army is sending its first Stryker M-SHORAD Mobile Short Range Air Defense vehicles to Germany. 

In development for several years, M-SHORAD Strykers are armed with a first-of-its-kind drone, fixed wing and helicopter-killing counter air ability as part of the Army’s broader push to prepare the force for massive land war on the European continent against a great power adversary like Russia. 

 An Army report says the service will field 144  M-SHORAD systems to four battalions in Ansbach, Germany, beginning this year, as a first step toward a larger deployment. The vehicles will support the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command, a unit naturally focused upon protecting advancing ground forces from a growing range of incoming air attacks. 

Not only will M-SHORAD offer advancing infantry a new ability to destroy enemy drones and helicopters, but it will also protect them from incoming artillery, rockets and mortar fire as they maneuver to “close with an enemy.” 

A possibility to intercept or counter incoming enemy rockets from the ground while on the move certainly brings a new dimension to modern Combined Arms Maneuver which increasingly needs to conduct operations with a specific mind to newer kinds of air threats such as precision-guided enemy artillery, attack drones and longer-range weapons. 

Yet another key dimension of this is that the Army report explains that “laser” interceptors will soon be incorporated into M SHORAD, an extremely significant tactical change greatly improving the speed and scalability of on-the-move counter drone operations.