Anduril Industries which is a small California-based tech startup has revealed that it has started
delivering"hard kill” drones to the U.S military that are designed to bring down enemy
drones.
As of now, it is not clear which branch of the U.S military is procuring these.
The drone in question is named ‘Interceptor' and was unveiled on Oct 3, 2019.
It is designed to destroy similarly sized hostile unmanned aircraft by physically ramming
them in air.
In this video Defense Updates analyses U.S military deploying Hard kill drones to kill
enemy drones.
Let’s get started
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Drone technology has evolved rapidly and these can evade even advance air defense systems.
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.
On 19 July this year, U.S President Donald Trump had said that the USS Boxer downed an
Iranian drone.
As per him, the drone came within 1,000 yards of the U.S Navy ship and ignored "multiple
calls to stand down”.
Mr. Trump Speaking at the White House, said the drone was "threatening the safety of the
ship and the ship's crew" in the Strait of Hormuz and was "immediately destroyed.”
Jonathan Hoffman, Chief Pentagon spokesman wrote,
"At approximately 10 a.m. local time, the amphibious ship USS Boxer was in international
waters conducting a planned inbound transit of the Strait of Hormuz.
A fixed wing unmanned aerial system (UAS) approached Boxer and closed within a threatening
range.
The ship took defensive action against the UAS to ensure the safety of the ship and its
crew,” The takedown was done through Marine Air Defense
Integrated System or MADIS which uses several types of Electronic Warfare techniques like
radio frequencies jamming to block the communication system of the drone.
On September 14, facilities of Saudi Arabia's oil company Aramco located in the east of
the country came under attack.
As per reports, the raid began around 4 a.m and drones as well as cruise missiles were
used in the attack, there were 18 drones and 7 missiles.
The world’s biggest oil refinery near the city of Abqaiq and a refinery near Khurais,
where Saudi’s second-largest oil field is located were targeted.
Patriot PAC-2 surface-to-air missile batteries that the U.S. sold to Saudi Arabia failed
to protect the facility from the raid.
These incidents clearly demonstrate the impact drones can make and this threat will become
more prominent in the coming days.
Currently, there are two ways to neutralize drones
1.
Soft kill approach where the drone is jammed with Electronic Warfare (EW).
In this method, the drone’s communication with the ground control station is disrupted
resulting in them falling out of the sky.
2.
Hard kill approach where the enemy drone is physically damaged.
This can be done by intercepting the drone with missiles, automated gun systems and lasers.
This is important to note that the Soft Kill approach will not always work.
New age drones powered by AI are more self-reliant and don’t need continuous human control
and hence are resistant to Electronic Warfare.
Several new variants of drones can automatically return to the operator even if the communication
is lost.
Hard Kill approach with missiles is not very cost-effective.
For example, an FIM-92 Stinger short-range shoulder-fired surface-to-air missile has
a price of $ 38,000 and a Patriot surface-to-air missile costs around 1 million each.
Hard Kill method with lasers is still taking shape.
Anduril was co-founded by Palmer Luckey, who also founded virtual reality headset startup
Oculus VR, which was sold to Facebook for $2.3 billion in 2014.
Anduril started with drones that are designed for surveillance.
These drone uses electro-optical and infrared sensors to spot and track.
Anduril has now moved beyond surveillance and is developing interception solutions.
Palmer Luckey told Bloomberg in an interview, "All the soft kill systems are a waste of
time”, referring to the inherent weakness of the approach.
The firm claims that Electronic Warfare tactics like radio-jamming will become useless as
consumer and semi consumer drones become more sophisticated.
Luckey in a post on Twitter, “The best way to kill fast drones piloted
by hostile humans is with even faster drones piloted by AI,” “The United States cannot
allow the skies of the world to turn into the Wild West, our ability to take out aerial
threats in a matter of seconds is part of the solution.”
Anduril's quad-copter Interceptor uses the same kind of technology as its other drones
but is optimized to taking down enemy drones by physically ramming against it.
Its sensor detects and tracks the hostile drone and the footage is transmitted in realtime
to the operator on the ground.If the operator gives the go-ahead, the Interceptor collides
with the hostile drone to take it out.
A demonstration video has been published by Anduril.
The link to the video is provided in the ‘Description’ section below.
As demonstrated in the video, an operator launched an off-the-shelf white quadcopter
and flew it to a height of 100 feet off the ground.
Then Anduril’s ‘Interceptor' is launched which smashed into it and landed undamaged,
while the white drone considered to be hostile in this demonstration, fell to the ground
in pieces.
The ‘Interceptor' drone can work day and night.
It is to be noted that Anduril’s surveillance, as well as Interceptor drone, is part of the
larger perimeter defense system, called Lattice AI.
Lattice AI collects and analyses data from sensors on fixed ground stations and surveillance
UAVs.
The processed information is then used to direct a coordinated response.
Anduril is pitching Lattice AI to the US Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security.
In June 2019, the US Marine Corps (USMC) announced its intent to award Anduril a sole source
contract for its system for perimeter defense at bases in Japan, Hawaii and Arizona, according
to a Justification and Approval notice.
It is interesting to note that Anduril which was founded in 2017 raised $41 million in
venture capital financing as per some reports.
Report by CNBC indicates that the startup is valued at more than $1 billion.
Several Silicon Valley venture capital firms such as Andreesen Horowitz and Founders Fund
who were two early backers of Facebook are also backing Anduril.
Drones - cheap and simple as well as sophisticated once will be a challenge going forward.
Anduril’s Interceptor is one of the several solutions that will be at the forefront of
counter-drone strategy.
In the coming days, Anduril’s Interceptor could be mounted on a mobile platform like
an all-terrain vehicle for quick deployment.
The Interceptor could also be feed data from a larger air defense system network which
will provide early warning and cueing and this will enable better response especially
if the attack is through swarm drones.
Counter drone space is exploding and we can expect to see a lot of development in this
space.
It is to be seen how things pan out in the coming days but one thing is clear that the
U.S military is now taking the drone challenge seriously and this is certainly going to pave
way for better capabilities in the future.