By Kris Osborn, Warrior
High powered counter-drone targeting scopes for the M4 rifle, tank protecting “cage” armor to create explosions “away” from an armored vehicles under drone attack, tailored EW transmissions designed to disable or “jam” drone swarms and even power-scaled laser weapons built to incinerate enemy drones …..are all critical topics now being analyzed in great depth by combat experts, weapons developers, Army academics and experienced combat operators at the service’s fast-evolving Counter UAS University at Fort Sill Okla.
The focus of the University is multifaceted in that it incorporates conceptual, strategic, tactical and operational variables … and the intersections between them … as areas of focused analysis. The scholars at C-UAS focus on new technologies employed in current wars such as Ukraine with a mind to better understanding modern threats and emerging concepts of operation.
“The threat is evolving so quickly. It's, you know, what we always say is what we learn today will be irrelevant tomorrow…. and that's kind of the way it is. Electronic warfare, high powered microwave and directed energy lasers are all capabilities that are being developed and obviously all at different stages of development,” Lt. Col. John Peterson, Director, Joint Counter UAS University, told Warrior in an interview. “We do primarily use both non kinetic and kinetic capabilities, and that's what we train here, EW is, you know, a capability that we focus on with the systems that we train on here at the schoolhouse along with some handheld kinetic weapons. We also train through simulation.”
Small Arms to Counter Drones
Peterson emphasized that, oftentimes, a combination or series of layered countermeasures is the optimal or most effective defense against incoming drone attacks. For closer-in attack drones approaching convoys, dismounted troops or vehicle formations, the Army now has hand-held and crew-served counter-drone weapon scopes called “Smart Shooters.” There are several different kinds of Smart shooters now at various stages of development, one of which is built by Israeli-based SmartShooter called the “SMASH” 200L . The Army has formally acquired the SMASH 200L and is currently experimenting with several kinds of AI-enabled, weapon-mounted counter-drone technologies.
Much of the precision accuracy and targeting with these weapons is enabled by AI technologies, which can help scopes track a moving drone target and support fire control and guidance systems. Peterson told Warrior AI is increasingly critical in the realm of C-UAS. An AI-capable system can perform analytics in milliseconds upon incoming sensor and targeting data by bouncing information off a database to draw conclusions, recommend courses of action or simply improve the speed, accuracy and precision with which a rifle or crew-served weapon can destroy a drone.
“We want to look at it as a decision aid, right?.... Something to help quickly and efficiently identify threats, determine engagement solutions and pair the best sensor to the best shooter. This is designed to provide that commander or that operator decision space and time to determine what they're going to do. Utilizing AI as that decision tool will hopefully alleviate the inefficiency that currently exists with the kind of the swivel chair operations we're doing right now between multiple systems,”
Joint Counter UAS University
Peterson said that Joint Counter UAS University is the primary Joint Counter Small UAS Training Institute for the Department of Defense located at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, Established in 2023 the University is part of the U.S. Army's Air Defense Artillery Schoolhouse
“We train joint interagency partners and collaborate with foreign partners on the ins and outs of counter-UAS operations,” Peterson said. “We take them through the institution of theories on the different capabilities from drone warfare, including all the ways how those systems are going to be employed and operated out in the field.
The Joint-CSUAS curriculum also incorporates an “operators” course through which students learn how to use countermeasures in warfare, understand the wide ranging scope of adaptive small drone threats and “train” on cutting edge weapons and equipment now in the field.
In total, the emerging University offers four courses, to include a counter-UAS planners course, operations course and tailored material for foreign partners. There is also a key focus on joint, multi-service, multinational weapons, fire control, networking and command and control integration; this includes a key focus on methods of accommodating new tactics and concepts of operation as next generation weapons and technologies emerge.
“We have to be as adaptable to the threat as it changes over time…..and that's kind of what our university focuses on. We will be taking those lessons learned, taking our observations and trying to make the most relevant curriculum we can and implement that into our schoolhouse and the training of our joint partners,” Peterson explained. “Unfortunately, the enemy gets a vote and they have an opportunity to adjust how they execute their tactics, techniques and procedures. We have to be adaptable to that and layer our capabilities between non-kinetic capability, potentially kinetic capability, or multiple levels of kinetic and non-kinetic capability combined. We will use different types of effectors that can do different things to potentially get after any given threat
