Defense industry flexes counter-drone arms amid booming global interest
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A BlueHalo Locust laser weapon, mounted to a Stryker vehicle at a defense conference. Photo: Colin Demarest/Axios
The drone conversation is impossible to avoid in defense-tech circles. How to make them. How to price them. How to operate alongside them — and how to blast them.
- Last week, the halls and booths of the Association of the U.S. Army conference were choked with counter-drone armaments.
Why it matters: Unmanned vehicles are wreaking havoc across the world, from Ukraine to the Red Sea to Sudan. It's time to pay attention to fighting back.
- And don't forget about the Pentagon's second iteration of Replicator.
From jammers to directed energy to explosive interceptors, here's some of what was on the AUSA show floor:
- Northrop Grumman unveiled its latest Bushmaster chain gun, which can handle two ammo feeds at the same time. (Northrop recommends XM1211 proximity-fuzed rounds for obliterating drones.) Live-fire tests are expected early next year.
- Leidos introduced AirShield, meant to defend convoys and bases. One interceptor used, the Co-axial Unmanned Guided Autonomous Rotorcraft, releases streamers, disabling an incoming drone without risking collateral damage.
- Teledyne FLIR Defense showed off its Cerberus XL C-UAS, describing it as "battle tested and proven in Ukraine." The mobile setup combines sensors with third-party drone countermeasures.
- Axon bolted a DedroneSecure to the top of an Infantry Squad Vehicle. A spokesperson said it will be ready for Defense Department testing and evaluation in 2025.
- BlueHalo flexed its Locust laser weapon atop a prototype dubbed C-UAS DE Stryker. It underwent testing in New Mexico just weeks ago. Footage shared by the company shows a quadcopter crossing its path, catching fire and plummeting to the ground.
- Epirus hauled a full-sized Leonidas to the show floor. The contractor teased an extended-range version of its high-powered microwave weapon as well as naval applications.
- Anduril Industries displayed Roadrunner, a recoverable interceptor. The company recently secured a $250 million deal to furnish hundreds of them, plus Pulsar electronic warfare tools.
What they're saying: "Systems designed to detect or intercept inbound threats are absolutely critical to addressing the drone threat," Pat Morris, Anduril's vice president and general manager for air defense, told Axios.
- But equal attention, he added, "must be paid to the integration of all those disparate systems and the workflow underpinning the entire C-UAS kill chain."
Zoom in: The Army is prioritizing drones and drone protections through a months-old initiative known as "transforming in contact."
- "Countering them is the harder one — it's a bigger challenge," Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George said in a pre-AUSA interview.
- "We're working with Central Command, and we're shipping everything that we have that is even close to ready."
The bottom line: Overhead defense is only getting more complicated.
