(dramatic music) (gun blasting)
- [Narrator] The US Military has launched a new school
to train American Armed Forces
in how to counter the emerging threat of drones
or what it calls Unmanned Aircraft Systems or UAS.
The first academy of its kind,
The Joint Counter Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems University
or JCU will train about 1,000 troops a year.
- Warfare is changing very fast.
This threat right here,
this current threat with respect to UAS,
it's the pace of your phone changing.
(drone clicking) (dramatic music)
(drone buzzing)
- [Narrator] This footage is from a Ukrainian drone attack
carried out against Russian forces,
and this video is from a Hamas drone attack in November
carried out against Israeli forces in Gaza.
The proliferation of small, cheap,
commercially available drones
is transforming modern warfare
and this has not been lost on the Pentagon.
(gun clicking) (gun blasting)
Colonel Moseph Sauda is the director of the JCU.
- The pace of the need is outgrowing capacity right now,
so we're trying to train as many people as possible
and trying to grow as fast as possible to fit that need.
- [Narrator] Today, students at Fort Sill
are training on weapons systems to counter
small unmanned aircraft. (gun blasting)
- Alright, so what we have in front of us here
is what's known as the Smart Shooter,
what the name implies is what it does.
Alright, so the Smart Shooter itself is a smart optic
that is placed onto the M4 weapon system
to allow the soldier a better opportunity
to engage small UAS threats that are very close.
(dramatic music) (gun blasting)
- [Narrator] Smartshooter training does involve drones,
but students don't shoot directly at them.
(gun blasting)
Instead, they shoot at balloons
dangling below the drones on a string.
The JCU said, "Balloons are more cost effective,
and thinks the high winds in Oklahoma
are a harder target to hit.
(gun blasting) - [Instructor] Nice.
- So the soldier would place the weapon
into operation the way they do for any other situation.
From that point there, you would look through the optic,
which would acquire the target for you,
in which case the soldier would pull the trigger
and the rest of is done by the weapon system.
(gun blasting) - [Instructor] Nice.
- [Narrator] The students are also learning
how to use another handheld system, the Dronebuster.
- Whereas the Smart Shooter utilizes the 556 round,
this is known as an electronic attack system,
so a soldier's taking this here
and they're pointed in a general direction
of the target that they see.
And then a soldier placed in an operation
utilize various jamming means to interdict that target.
- [Narrator] The JCU says, "These weapons systems
and others like them
are already in the hands of US forces around the world."
- It's not just the Air Force anymore
that is using unmanned aerial vehicles or drones,
it is also ground forces,
and every echelon have different types of drones
that provide them
with intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance,
as well as targeting, and sometimes strike capabilities.
- [Narrator] Before the JCU was created,
soldiers who trained on anti-drone weapon systems
did so within their own branches.
- The Joint Counter UAS University,
the intent here is to standardize
and centralize the training
so that we can all have interoperability
as we work together and integrate the system successfully
with respect to the threat
- [Narrator] Training typically lasts
between one to three weeks.
Students are selected by their commanders,
but some volunteer to attend.
- As far as branches of Military coming through the JCU,
we are seeing service members from all branches.
We also train federal agencies
as well as allied and partner nations.
- [Narrator] In the years following
the September 11th attacks,
the US deployed large, sophisticated, expensive drones
for surveillance and strikes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The first time commercial drones
were used in a conflict was in Iraq.
When ISIS deployed the technology in the battle for Mosul,
- ISIS began to modify small quadcopters
and use them to attack Iraqi and US forces.
And this presented an unprecedented challenge.
- [Narrator] In recent years,
civilian drones modified with explosives
have become a growing menace
for troops in Syria, Gaza, and Ukraine.
- Drones are fundamentally changing the way
that militaries fight.
They are allowing different states to perform missions
that previously were too expensive.
Having an Air Force on the cheap, for example.
- [Narrator] Many of the small drones
being used in combat today in Ukraine
come from one Chinese company, DGI.
DGI drones aren't made to fire weapons,
but they can be easily modified
to carry a grenade or other small explosive.
Last year, DGI said,
"It would stop selling its drones to Ukraine and Russia
because the technology was not intended to be used
for military activities
- In Ukraine, you've seen just an explosion
of commercial and do-it-yourself drones
on a level that has never been seen before.
Both parties are employing them at all echelons.
The Ukrainians were the first movers here
and you've seen them move into first-person view drones,
these small, fast quadcopters that are essentially kamikazes
and crash into their target.
- [Narrator] Students at Fort Sill
are also training for an emerging threat, drone swarms,
the term refers to a network
of multiple unmanned aerial flying platforms
integrated together by a single system.
- We have the ability to replicate drone swarms here,
and this is very important
because as a student,
you'll have a realistic appraisal
of the difficulties that these different platforms present,
but also you'll have an understanding of the capabilities
of what you're utilizing to neutralize that threat.
- [Narrator] Given how rapidly
drone technology is developing,
the Pentagon believes
there's no single weapon system that can be relied upon.
- You're really in a cost competition
because so many of the drones are very cheap today,
that you don't wanna be firing something
that is much more expensive
to intercept and destroy them.
- There is no silver bullet
when it comes to counter UAS.
So there is no one system that is most effective.
Commanders have to determine,
based off of planning factors,
which system is best to be utilized against the threat.
And so what we want to do
is make sure we use a layered approach,
using multiple systems
planning against that in different environments,
don't look for one way out.
You want to create multiple dilemmas,
which then makes it difficult for the adversary to develop
means to defeat what you're putting together.
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