30 September 2024

Drone, Counterdrone, Counter-Counterdrone: Winning the Unmanned Platform Innovation Cycle

Zachary Kallenborn and Marcel Plichta

Shooting down drones is now an international pastime. In Ukraine, Russia, Sudan, Myanmar, and the Red Sea, militaries are scrambling to get their hands on counterdrone systems. In June, the US Navy issued a call for immediate kinetic counterdrone solutions and the UK is racing to have a high-energy laser operational as soon as possible. Market analysis estimates the global counterdrone market could reach $10.56 billion by 2030.

Global militaries, manufacturers, and pilots are not standing idly by.

Drone counter-countermeasures are a critical part of the competition between drone offense and defense. Today’s drones can defeat countermeasures through a broad range of technologies and tactics. Drones might fly nap-of-the-earth to avoid detection, adopt greater autonomy to reduce the effects of jamming, fly in mass to overwhelm defenses, incorporate onboard defenses like antiradiation missiles, and more. Our new Joint Force Quarterly article, “Breaking the Drone Shield,” describes and analyzes eleven such counter-countermeasures.


No comments: