Small drones are changing the battlefield - are we ready? Explore the rise of sUAS, their impact on modern warfare, and the critical need for advanced countermeasures like Skytender.
The blimp and biplane first occupied the skies, followed by the strategic and stealth bombers. Now it is drones & FPV Drones, or small uncrewed aerial systems (sUAS), that are disrupting the modern battlefield.
Ongoing conflicts have demonstrated the effectiveness of sUAS on the modern battlefield – at both a tactical and strategic level, streamed to our screens through social media. It has transformed how both sides conduct surveillance, target assets, and engage in direct combat. It has also enabled penetrations deep behind enemy lines, enabling Ukraine to strike critical national infrastructure in areas their adversary considered safe.
Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS) have become a symbol of the shift towards remote and autonomous systems, and like any technological development, it has triggered a cat-and-mouse game of developing countermeasures and counter-countermeasures. In the case of Counter-Uncrewed Air Systems (C-UAS), this comes in three forms: a physical attack using a munition, an electronic attack by exploiting the electromagnetic spectrum, or a cyber-attack using known weaknesses or zero-day exploits in sUAS software.
Ongoing Conflicts Have marked a shift in the attitudes towards UAS on the battlefield. Traditionally, UAS are large, expensive platforms that have been exclusively used as a strategic asset used for intelligence, target acquisition, and reconnaissance. The growth of the commercial sUAS market has seen innovations of all kinds, from relatively innocuous developments such as operators receiving real-time video, FPV capabilities to more substantial modifications equipping drones with explosives.
What makes UAS particularly dangerous is their low cost and ease of production. Ukraine alone is likely to produce one million drones by the end of 2024 as reported by Defence Express on October 24, 2024[1]. These low-cost drone systems are difficult to defend against without C-UAS technologies equipped with real-time situational awareness, threat assessment, and defeat capability. We have collectively learned how to operationalise and counter drones during the Russia-Ukraine conflict, but with this data and these experiences now well documented, we are able to go one step further by simulating these threats and develop robust contingency plans. Operators can use real-world scenarios to test the effectiveness of C-UAS components, sitting them in different areas and configurations to create the most effective configurations to best defend their people and platforms. Without the right countermeasures in place, drones can disrupt operations, destroy assets, and compromise tactical and strategic objectives. The goal is simple: to effectively detect, track, target, and destroy incoming sUAS – as individual systems or as part of a swarm – before they pose a threat.
Having rapidly evolved from a niche technology to a swiss army knife in the military’s inventory, sUAS have demonstrated their versatility, cost-effectiveness, and ability to bypass traditional defense systems to level the playing field. Governments and militaries are particularly afraid of them because they are accessible – and have already been in operational use by non-state threat actors around the world.
From small, off-the-shelf models used for reconnaissance to sophisticated armed UAS, the 'cat and mouse’ game between drone operators and the systems countering them continues to evolve. Traditional surveillance radars were designed to track aircraft as small as a microlight, but nothing smaller, enabling sUAS to defeat evade radar and execute precise attacks.
The threat posed by drones extends far beyond the battlefield itself. Critical infrastructure, civilian populations, and military assets are at risk of being targeted, as Ukraine has been very successful at deep within Russia. It highlights that defence must be layered – taking components including physical, electromagnetic, and digital countermeasures, as well as the ‘basics’ of fieldcraft to defend installations of strategic importance.
Leonardo’s C-UAS system, Falcon Shield, is designed to be integrated with a variety of detectors and effectors to best protect the strategic assets in its vicinity. Built with layering in mind, it can be integrated with a range of radars, electro-optical sensors, and effectors to detect, target, identify, and defeat sUAS threats.
At Leonardo Canada – Electronics, we’ve developed Skytender – an advanced C-UAS operational planning and analysis toolset that enhances decision-making capabilities and asset protection. Skytender will quantify the effectiveness of your deployed C-UAS infrastructure, enabling its operators – whether they are military or civil – to configure and optimise their defensive strategies against the threat of sUAS. Skytender evaluates factors including sensor coverage, radio frequency (RF) emissions, and jamming techniques, providing the reassurance that, should the area be targeted by sUAS, the operational outcome is much more likely to be successful – even in the face of degraded or congested electromagnetic environments.
We have all seen the devastation caused by readily available, inexpensive sUAS operated by hostile actors. But by using tools such as Skytender to forward-plan and test our own defences, we increase the likelihood of drones being detected, tracked, intercepted, and defeated before they can do our people harm and disrupt our critical infrastructure. There is no doubt that these threats will become more complex, but our countermeasures will quickly adapt and overcome this complexity.
[1] Defence Express
