The United States Joint Anti Small Drone Systems Office (JCO) has completed a high-power microwave (HPM) technology demonstration to counter the threat of multiple (two) drones in a single mission.

The United States Joint Office for Anti Small Drone Systems was established in 2019, authorizing the Army to take the lead in developing an anti drone integrated system. At present, the office has completed three demonstrations, held in spring 2021, autumn 2021, and April 2022, and plans to conduct two demonstrations annually in the future to bridge the gap in the capabilities of various military branches in combating small drones.

The third demonstration of anti small unmanned aerial vehicle systems will be held in April 2022 at the Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. The participants include Epirus, Raytheon Technologies, and Leonardo DRS. The system is for foundationhigh powerMicrowave air defense systems are designed to counter drone threats.

During the demonstration, the focus was on verifying the application effectiveness of high-power microwave equipment, including the range of high-power microwave transmission and the time required to reject/shoot down targets. The drone targets used in the demonstration are Class 1 (weighing no more than 20 pounds/9.07 kilograms), Class 2 (weighing approximately 21-55 pounds/9.53-24.95 kilograms), and Class 3 (weighing approximately 55-1320 pounds/24.95-598.71 kilograms), with a maximum of two drones per operation.

From the demonstration effect, it can be seen that Leonardo DRS' "Vector Inverse Generator" system has limited functionality, but JCO achieves target localization and strike based on the threat target signals transmitted by the military command and control system, and successfully captures power output andelectromagnetismThe time of pulse radiation to the target.

Epirus' system is capable of shooting down drone targets within its deployment range, and its system efficiency will be further improved in the future.

The Raytheon system is currently in the research and development stage, and the main problem is its short operating range. The future development prospects are expected.

JCO also evaluated the capability of anti small unmanned aerial vehicle systems as a service (CaaS), which refers to the ability to achieve supplier owned (hardware) and government operated capabilities in fixed areas. JCO received a total of 25 CaaS white papers and selected 5 companies to showcase their capabilities, namely Anduril Industries, Black Sage, CACI, Rafael Systems Global Sustainment, and SAIC.

JCO has set up five very complex architectures (JCO's first exploratory attempt). Each company provides a large number of different detection, identification, tracking, and countermeasure components. JCO will conduct individual and integrated testing on each component, and ultimately comprehensively test the CaaS service capabilities of each company in the "frontline" scenario. JCO is analyzing the collected test data and will distribute the test results within the Ministry of National Defense.

In addition, JCO is signing contracts with suppliers participating in technology demonstrations in 2021 to integrate them into a sustainable anti drone system architecture. JCO refused to disclose the details of the contract.

Currently, JCO is developing a plan to showcase concepts and capabilities during the next round of demonstrations in autumn 2022. JCO stated that the capability gap issues that need to be addressed in the near future can be identified within one month.