Army struggles to find ways to counter small unmanned aerial drones

The current threat du jour in the defense industry and the military itself is small quad-copter drones being used for terminal guidance in kamikaze attacks that detonate small-yield explosives such as grenades or mortar rounds that they carry onboard. Russia's war in Ukraine has demonstrated to the U.S. Army that they currently have a gap when it comes to Counter-Small Unmanned Aerial Systems (C-SUAS).

The Army has numerous counter-drone programs but few if any that are practical to use on a tactical level, where the Infantry closes with and destroys the enemy.

Two systems in the inventory are the M-LIDS and the FS-LIDS. The M-LIDS can be mounted on vehicles while the FS-LIDS provides a static solution to protect headquarters or other critical infrastructure. Unfortunately, neither of these platforms are practical or effective for C-SUAS according to Warrant Officers Ronald Brand and Wesley Wilk.

"There are no dedicated C-SUAS personnel or organic equipment at any tactical echelon in the conventional Army, and the preponderance of C-SUAS equipment uses electronic warfare (EW) technologies with traditional air defense TTPs (Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures)," Brand and Wilk write . This includes the entire Air Defense branch of the U.S. Army.

One system that is effective at the tactical level, and used by some units, is the Drone Buster 3B manufactured by Flex Force. The Drone Buster is designed to jam small commercial off-the-shelf drones such as those currently being widely utilized in Ukraine, and according to marketing information has a range that extends beyond line of sight.

The authors advocate for the Army to develop a capability at the tactical level for soldiers to quickly identify small drones operated by the enemy, and jam them with electronic counter-measures. From their perspective, the Army needs to develop and issue technological solutions as well as give training to soldiers who will be on the frontlines and will likely not have access to larger bulkier systems like the M-LIDS and FS-LIDS.