The U.S. Navy’s M80 Stiletto experimental testbed ship has successfully finished a six-week
demonstration of a C-UAS (Counter - Unmanned Aircraft System ) solution.
The study pitted M80 Stiletto against "drone swarms".
The anti-drone system integrated onto Stiletto was the DroneSentry-X manufactured by Australia-based
defense contractor DroneShield.
Viewers may note that in their July 2021 newsletter, DroneShield claims the system tested aboard
the Stiletto “demonstrated overall detection capability, detection and defeat ranges, on-the-move
operation in various sea states, and effectiveness against drone swarms, involving a wide range
of unmanned robotic threats.”
In this video Defense Updates analyzes how U.S Navy's M80 Stiletto ship armed with DroneSentry-X
will swat enemy drones?
Let's get started.
This video is sponsored by War Thunder.
If you are, like us, fascinated by military vehicles and technology, I recommend you give
War Thunder a try.
It's a military vehicle combat game which you can download and play for free on PC,
PlayStation4 and Xbox One - with cross-platform support.
It has a huge variety of more than 1200 playable aircraft, tanks, helicopters and ships from
the 1930s to the 1990s, which you can take to battle on land, in the air and at sea on
more than 80 theaters of war.
War Thunder has been kind enough to offer all Defense Updates viewers a special bonus,
which will grant you a free premium tank or aircraft or ship and three days of premium
account time for registering using our link in the description below.
So, take the plunge and join the more than 20 million players from all over the world!
The technology of swarming is in which drones, as well as smart munitions, will be deployed
in squadrons, able to think independently and operate as a pack using Artificial Intelligence
(AI).
This concept will allow thousands of independent units to act as one and home in on the target
in a collaborative fashion.
Drone swarm technology is being nurtured by many nations for combat use.
In the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas earlier this year, the Jewish
nation had reportedly deployed drone swarms.
As per reports, Israel Defense Forces used drones manufactured by Elbit Systems to perform
search and intelligence gathering.
The U.S military is working on several kinds of anti-drone systems and DroneSentry-X armed
M80 Stiletto is one of them.
The M80 Stiletto is an American prototype naval ship using advanced stealth technologies.
The M80 is produced by American marine engineering contractor, the M Ship Company, as an experimental
testbed ship for The Pentagon’s Office of Force Transformation.
It is notable for its innovative Pentamaran hull design and advanced carbon fiber composite
construction.
The 88-foot (27 m) Stiletto's unusual shape and patented M-hull provides a stable yet
fast platform for mounting electronic surveillance equipment or weapons, or for conducting special
operations.
Its shallow draft means the M80 Stiletto can operate in littoral and riverine environments
and potentially allows for beach landings.
The M80 Stiletto is equipped with four Caterpillar, Inc.
C32 1232 kW (1652 HP) engines generating a top speed in excess of 70 mph or 110 km/h
and has a range of 575 miles or 900 km when fully loaded.
As per the manufacturer DroneShield, DroneSentry-X is a cross-vehicle compatible, automated 360°
detect and defeat device.
It is essentially a C-UAS (Counter - Unmanned Aircraft System ) that provides a non-kinetic
means to defeat drone threats.
DroneSentry-X is claimed to provide 360° awareness and protection using integrated
sensors to detect and disrupt UAS moving at any speed - suitable for mobile operations,
on-site surveillance and on-the-move missions.
The design has a lot of flexibility.
The manufacturer states that the robust compact unit can be mounted on mobile platforms through
standard vehicle roof racks.
Also, it can be deployed at a fixed site or as a temporary pop-up solution, with on-site
or remote operator access.
DroneShield states that DroneSentry-X offers users real-time situational awareness and
the ability to respond to UAS and threats detected by the system.
The system provides a digital control panel and mountable display with which operators
can control, access and view real-time data and live map of local UAS activity.
DroneSentry-X defeat capabilities can be automatically or manually set to counter and disrupt UAS
activity within range.
It has a detection range of more than 2 km or 1.2 miles, with a disruption range of more
than 300m.
For this latest demonstration, the DroneSentry-X was fitted to M80.
It is a reasonably easy integration since the DroneSentry-X has a dimension of 24.9”
x 24.9” x 9.1” and weighs only 25.7kg or 56 lbs.
The undertaking is made easier as the whole system is placed inside an IP66 rated shell
and comes with a digital control panel and display.
The exact nature of the drone swarms in these tests is unknown.
It was also not revealed how many drones constituted these swarms.
The company claims the system uses AI to examine the surrounding radio frequencies and identifies
potentially hostile drones.
Then it uses non-kinetic jamming to disrupt them.
Drone technology has become very advanced and relatively cheap.
A swarm of drones armed with explosives has the potential to cause a lot of damage.
The conflicts in Iraq and Syria have shown that this kind of capability is within reach
of even non-state actors.
In January 2018, a mass drone attack was witnessed on Russia’s main outposts in Syria – the
Khmeimim airbase and the naval base in Tartus.
Though the damage from the attack was insignificant as per Russia, it clearly displayed the potential
of drones in warfare.
Since this event, drones have been used for combat roles many times including in the recent
conflict between Azerbaijan & Armenia.
U.S Navy itself had to face a drone threat when an Iranian drone came close to USS Boxer
and had to be taken down.
So, the threat from Drone Swarm is real and experiments such a this will go a long way
to mitigate this.