The nation needs a better-coordinated policy for dealing with unmanned aerial systems that threaten domestic bases, Air Force vice chief of staff Gen. James C. Slife told a panel of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He and Pentagon acquisition and sustainment chief William LaPlante co-chair ...
Members of Congress want to know how the Air Force plans to defend remote or forward-deployed airfields as part of its Agile Combat Employment strategy. By February 1, the House Armed Services tactical air and land forces subcommittee expects a report outlining the Secretary of ...
Three drones attacked a U.S. base in southeastern Syria on Jan. 20, the latest in a series of threats to the strategically positioned outpost, U.S. Central Command said. Two of the drones were shot down by the Coyote air defense system, according to a U.S. ...
U.S. Central Command is making progress tying together air, missile, and drone defenses—but there’s still more to be done to achieve “single-pane-of-glass” integration, officials say. Fully integrating sensors and defenses will demand further innovations, both in integrating new technologies and repurposing existing ones, said CENTCOM Deputy ...
Air Forces Central is standing up a new organization of “super empowered Airmen” who will have the freedom to experiment with cutting-edge technology in the “quite literal sandbox that we have in the Middle East,” said AFCENT commander Lt. Gen. Alexus G. Grynkewich. One of ...
China’s growing capability in the production of unmanned aerial vehicles, along with its lack of end-user restrictions, will require the U.S. Air Force to ramp up counteroffensive measures, panelists and attendees at the recent China Aerospace Studies Institute (CASI) conference told Air Force Magazine. “A ...
Al-Udeid Air Base, Qatar, recently adopted a new counter-drone system that lets its operators identify incoming threats and sever the connection between drone and operator. “The goal of the program is to build counter measures for Al-Udeid AB that would pose as a last line ...
The proliferation of small unmanned aerial systems, usually commercially available drones that can be outfitted to drop weapons, is the most “persistent and dangerous” threat to troops in the Middle East in decades. “These small- and medium-sized UAS proliferating across the [area of operations] present ...
The Defense Department is moving out with its first strategy to coordinate and plan for future threats posed by small drones at home and abroad. The Jan. 7 strategy comes after the military has contended with years-long proliferation of quadcopters and other cheap, widely available ...
The Air Force is in the market for upgrades to its counter-drone technologies, according to an Oct. 16 request for information posted on a federal contracting website. The service is in the early stages of deploying lasers, microwaves, and other weapons more advanced than a ...
Military research on how to protect against threatening unmanned aircraft has so far focused on two ends of the drone spectrum—store-bought products like small quadcopters and large, advanced aircraft akin to the MQ-9 Reaper. But Evan Hunt, high-energy laser business development lead at Raytheon, argues ...