The Ministry of Defence has a requirement for a man portable capability to “Defeat” autonomous, small (NATO Class 1) Unmanned (Fixed Wing and Rotary Wing) Aircraft Systems (sUAS) by a kinetic effect “Hard Kill” solution which is not reliant on RF jamming technology.
• Identify what capabilities Industry has to meet the requirements in the immediate future, for delivery within 2022;
• Identify what Industry is developing to meet the requirements in the near future, for delivery within 2023.
• Identify technologies with the development potential to evolve to meet emerging threats, beyond 2023.
The event will comprise of two stages, detailed as follows:
“Stage 1: Presentation Companies will deliver a 30-minute presentation of their product via virtual conferencing (e.g. Microsoft Teams), covering functionality, feasibility, technological robustness, deliverability, and development potential. This will allow companies with either Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) products or products in development to present their solutions.
Stage 2: Demonstration Companies who have presented a product suitably safe and sufficiently developed to be operated on a Trials Range will be invited to demonstrate their capability within a 1-hour timeslot in a live environment.”
The demonstration will entail each product supplier operating their C-UAS system to engage a Class 1 target UAS approaching from a distance of 500m.
“The target set will take the following format, with the effectiveness being determined upon the incremental reduction in target difficulty. If the target is defeated on scenario 1 or 2, scenario 3 will not be performed.
Scenario 1: 500m to 100m, evading manoeuvres to target.
Scenario 2: 500m to 100m, direct line to target.
Scenario 3: 100m to 20m staged approach, left-right traverse, then stationary at each 20m increment, tenderers will be given 1 opportunity at each stage to defeat the drone.”
The location of the industry event is still to be determined, however this will likely to be on Salisbury Plain Training Area.
“Event Target Target drones falling under NATO Class 1 mini (<15kg) classification will be utilised. Event Administration and manning Industry participants will be self-sufficient during the event. Specific arrangements will be announced once the level of response has been determined. It is anticipated the Industry Event will be held over several days with companies only required to attend on one day.”
Timeline for this project.
1) Deadline for registering interest for the Industry Day – 24-09-2021
2) Industry Engagement via MS Teams – WC 27-09-2021
3) Industry Demonstration – Live – WC 18-10-2021
4) DPQQ Publication – Estimated October 2021
5) Tender Publication – Estimated December 2021
6) Contract Award Date – Feb 2022
Back in 2019, the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) announced that it has awarded nearly £2 million in contracts to develop new capabilities to detect, disrupt, and defeat the hostile and malicious use of drones.
David Lugton, competition technical lead, said:
“The introduction of Unmanned Air Systems (UAS), often referred to as drones, has been one of the most significant technological advances of recent years and represents a shift in capability of potential adversaries.
The threat from UAS has evolved rapidly and we are seeing the use of hostile improvised UAS threats in overseas theatres of operation. There is a similar problem in the UK with the malicious or accidental use of drones becoming a security challenge at events, affecting critical infrastructure and public establishments; including prisons and major UK airports.”
Eighteen bids have been funded as part of the Countering Drones competition launched earlier this year by the then-Defence Secretary. You can read more here.
https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/contracts-awarded-to-counter-hostile-drone-threats/
Essential area of defence where we cannot keep kicking the can down the road. We needs to ensure we have adequate and sufficent Anti-UAV assets, both kinetic and none kinetic, for all types and classes of possible UAVs we may come across in the future.
Airborne wrote:
An apt metaphor , which sums up the procurement policy at the MOD to a tee.
Quite adept the MOD have probably been watching YouTube and seeing how versatile these rotary Drones can be ISIS saw their ability to not only survey but deliver orderance 2015-18
Let’s hope this procurement process doesn’t get screwed up by the MoD.
Cue cynical laughter from everyone ☝ 
It would have helped if the article above had included this chart:
What we need is a big fricken laser! Seriously though, the MoD are about 5 to 7 years behind the drag curve! The Ukrainian border conflict, was the first to use commercially bought (toy) quadcopter drones for attacking troops, after proving they were useful for surveillance. A simple servo operated mechanism that dropped a grenade into a trench was the first development, quickly followed by mortar shells carried by larger drones dropped onto vehicles. This development was then seen in Syria and lately in Libya. Who needs a mortar when you can literally pick your target and get a 100%… Read more »
Some of this I was aware of (mainly the last few paragraphs ;0) some of this not, great informative post Davey as normal.
You should ask George for a job. Not joking that’s the best description of UAV anti UAV i’ve ever read. ☝
Seems to be a lot of movement towards drone killing drones, the Russians are bigging up their latest examples effectiveness against their Turkish competitors if belatedly considering their humiliation in the recent Nagorno Karabakh conflict. Judging by your contribution it seems like there is going to be a need for wide ranging solutions from basic hand held to more complex, multi layered and flexible vehicle mounted solutions to deal with the various size and complexity of threats. Even then it’s going to be a long hard learning curve I suspect much through real time trial and error. Sounds reminiscent of… Read more »
I agree. What works for a divisional HQ would be useless for a 8 man section out on patrol. Though the concept of detection is likely to be the same. In recent news, India are rapidly purchasing a number of systems that can be used to project dockyards, airfields and logistical infrastructure. These all seem to be mounted on a large 4 x 4 MRAP type vehicle. They are combining both a soft kill, i.e. communications jamming with a hard kill high powered laser system. They haven’t published any details on how the Navy or Army systems detect and then… Read more »
Out of interest just coincidentally came across this article. https://news.usni.org/2021/09/07/navy-arming-surface-ships-with-drone-repellent-system
Another interesting article
https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a37320840/laser-guns-on-stryker-armored-vehicles/