MBDA used the Farnborough International Airshow in July to highlight its Sky Warden counter-uncrewed aerial systems (C-UAS) modular solution. (MBDA photo)
By David Pugliese
Over the last seven days in late August and early September the drone war was on full display in Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sept. 2 that Russia had launched 400 attack drones against troops and citizens at various locations in his country.
Russian officials said that Ukraine launched 158 drones overnight, striking at power stations and oil refineries.
Both sides claimed that many, if not most of the aerial vehicles, were shot down.
The conflict in Ukraine has signalled the transformation of modern warfare in a number of ways but none more so than in the realm of robotic weapons.
On a daily basis, Russia and Ukraine use the uninhabited aerial vehicles to try to attack each other’s critical infrastructure. On the battlefield small drones are dropping single bombs on to soldiers.
Last year the Royal United Services Institute estimated that Ukraine is launching 10,000 drones per month. Russia is said to be producing 1,000 drones a day.
During a April 8, 2024 appearance before the Senate defence committee, then Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre noted that Ukraine has faced significant difficulties dealing with continuing drone and other air attacks. “We are seeing Ukrainian air defence systems being overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of drone and missile attacks from Russia,” he said.
In the Red Sea, Houthi militants are using drones and missiles to target commercial shipping and western navies that have moved into the region to protect merchant vessels. On April 10, Houthi forces launched 11 drones at warships, and although all were shot down questions are being raised among senior defence leaders about the mounting costs.
The U.S. Navy is using missiles that can cost as much as $2 million each to destroy a Houthi-launched drone worth several thousand dollars.
In June, US Navy officers described the fighting as the most intense running sea battle the service has faced since the Second World War.
Cmdr. Eric Blomberg with the USS Laboon explained the level of threat and risk during an interview with the Associated Press news service. “I don’t think people really understand just kind of how deadly serious it is what we’re doing and how under threat the ships continue to be,” he said. “We only have to get it wrong once,” he said. “The Houthis just have to get one through.”
Besides the threat in the air, drones at sea are also playing more of a role in ongoing conflicts.
The Houthis have used drone boats but those have been destroyed before they could cause damage – so far.
At times the attacks have used swarms of drones. On July 1, the U.S. military announced it had destroyed three Houthi naval drones in a 24-hour period.
In contrast, Ukraine has had significant success with naval drones. It confirms it has used a combination of missiles and drones to destroy or disable about a third of Russia’s warships in the Black Sea.
The war in Ukraine has seen widespread use of the kamikaze naval drone, prompting militaries to raise concerns about the vulnerability of their warships and the defence industry to start pushing such technology to new limits.
Ukraine has used such systems, along with missiles and aerial drones, to destroy a number of Russian ships, prompting the United Kingdom’s then Defence Minister Grant Shapps to describe Russia’s Black Sea fleet as “functionally inactive.”
It is estimated that Ukraine has destroyed or damaged around 24 Russian ships with its naval drones which are essentially a speed-boat sized platform packed with explosives. Sea drones were also used to damage a key bridge from Russia to Crimea that was used for military resupply.
Technology and equipment to counter drones are well on the way to becoming a growth area for the defence industry and a necessary piece of kit for military forces.
Systems have already being developed and sold and in some cases rush to the frontlines.
Rheinmetall noted in January that the deployment in Ukraine of its Skynex air defence system had already prompted new orders from other militaries.
The system, which can be used to destroy drones and other airborne threats, fires around 1,000 rounds a minute at its targets.
BAE announced in January that it had successfully tested a new counter drone capability on one of the U.S. Army’s armoured vehicles in a live-fire event. The test demonstrated “the turret engaging with ground targets and utilizing a slew-to-cure capability to target both stationary and moving small drones with 30mm proximity rounds,” the statement noted.
As it struggles to acquire missiles from western nations for its air defence needs, Ukraine has resorted to a tried and true system of heavy machineguns and anti-aircraft guns to shoot down drones.
“Mobile air defence in Ukraine is probably responsible for over 40 percent intercepts of these systems [drones],” Michael Kofman, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment think tank told the U.S. publication Defense News in April.
Besides fielding sophisticated jammers to deal with aerial drones, Russia has also gone low tech, setting up nets to protect critical facilities. These large metal nets can entirely enclose a building and are supported by mooring lines anchored to metal stakes in the ground, Forbes magazine reported in April 2024. The idea is that the drones crash into the nets first without harming its intended target.
In Canada, the federal government and military highlighted in the newly released Defence Policy Update (DPU) the threat posed by the unhabituated systems. “Small drones are now being manufactured at high volume and low cost, and are changing warfare from Ukraine to the Red Sea,” the policy document noted. “They are used for reconnaissance and striking targets; in some instances drones that cost just a few hundred dollars have destroyed multi-million dollar platforms. Canada must be prepared to counter these threats as well as deploy robust drone capabilities.”
The DPU also talks about options for acquiring a suite of surveillance and strike drones and counter-drone capabilities. “A counter drone capability will ensure that the Canadian Armed Forces can neutralize drones that threaten our deployed forces, as well as those of our allies and partners,” it added. “Both of these systems will equip Canada to protect its forces against the proliferation of drone technology that is now a feature of modern military operations.”
The Canadian Armed Forces is receiving some counter-drone equipment for troops deployed in Latvia. In that area, the government recently spent $46 million to acquire new counter-drone equipment to be used against Class 1 UAS (small drones).
National Defence also has an eye out for new technology in the counter drone realm.
Between May 27 and June 21, the Canadian military held its Counter Uncrewed Aerial Systems Sandbox 2024 event. That test, which had observers from the RCMP and U.S. government, was trying to figure out how to detect and/or defeat micro and mini uncrewed aerial systems. The tests also examined how the equipment that might be able to accomplish this mission could be integrated into the broader military command and control systems.
Arcfield Canada, in partnership with Fortem Technologies, successfully participated in the 2024 Sandbox exercise. The two companies presented what they called a comprehensive, layered, detect-and-defeat CUAS system during the event. The solution integrated RF, optical, and radar detection, advanced AI-driven Command and Control, and both hard kill and soft kill defeat options. This system can function in fixed, mobile, and portable configurations, offering robust protection against drone threats, Arcfield and Fortem pointed out.
(Arcfield Canada Corp. was earlier this year awarded the CF-18 Avionics In-Service Support program by the Department of National Defence. For more than three decades, the company has served as the prime contractor for the CF-18 Avionics Optimized Weapon System Support program)
MBDA used the Farnborough International Airshow in July to highlight its Sky Warden counter-uncrewed aerial systems (C-UAS) modular solution. That concept uses a ground launched anti-air munition to strike at threats that include Class 1 and smaller Class 2 small uncrewed aircraft systems as well as loitering Munitions. MBDA joined forces with Fortem Technologies to use its DroneHunter technology.
MBDA noted that recent customer demonstrations saw Sky Warden faced with a wide range of offensive drone threats – with varying kinetic characteristics and in realistic operational scenarios – neutralizing them all.
Using artificial intelligence (AI) to assist its human operators to identify and classify the different threats from its full set of sensors (radar, passive RF, electro-optical cameras, etc.), Sky Warden automatically assigned to the most appropriate and available effector maximizing the efficiency of the response, the company stated.
MBDA also pointed out that in the threat scenarios Sky Warden faced, it blocked attacking drones with jammers, captured them with hunter drones, neutralized them in rapid sequence by laser, and destroyed a ‘shahed-like’ drone with a Mistral 3 missile at very long distance.
Sky Warden can be vehicle mounted or in use dismounted.
In 2022, MBDA introduced a naval version of Sky Warden.
Meanwhile, to close the existing capability gaps in mobile defence against drones at short range, Rheinmetall Electronics and MBDA Deutschland recently signed a Letter of Intent.
The companies intend to integrate MBDA's Small Anti Drone Missile into the Skyranger 30 and other Rheinmetall military vehicles.
Utilising “enforcer” technologies, this new guided missile offers an effective solution against small and medium-sized drones providing a high hit probability at long stand-off distances, the companies pointed out.
For its part, the 30mm cannon on the Skyranger 30 offers highly efficient, mobile defence against airborne threats by combining firepower, intelligent sensor technology and high mobility at shorter ranges. This means that the two weapons complement each other perfectly, the firms noted.
The Letter of Intent aims at a long-term cooperation for the integration of the missile into the Skyranger 30 and other military vehicles as well as the development, production and integration of a launcher onto various turret systems and Rheinmetall’s digital system architecture.
Thomas Gottschild, Managing Director of MBDA Germany noted in a statement that current conflicts have clearly shown that drone defence is one of the key challenges militaries now face.
“In order to provide the best possible solution, we are joining forces and building on our partnership with Rheinmetall and their turret solutions to close capability gaps in drone defence with the help of our Small Anti Drone Missile,” he added.
What comes next on the battlefield in terms of drones remains to be seen. But in late August, Ukraine announced it was fielding a new long-range weapon called Palianytsia which Ukrainian officials stated was a combination of a drone and missile.
The Palianytsia took 18 months to develop and build.
Since it was a homegrown development, Ukrainian military officers say they don’t need to seek permission from allies to strike deep into Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the Palianytsia, “a new class” of weapon.
Ukrainian officials said they used the weapon to strike at a Russian military installation but did not provide further details. It has been suggested Palianytsia has a range of up to 430 miles.
Ukraine’s technology minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, told The Associated Press news service that his country will now step up production of Palianytsia.
“I think this will be a game changer because we will be able to strike where Russia doesn’t expect it today,” he said.
But specific details are scarce about this new system that is supposed to blur the line between missile and drone.
What does the combination of drone and rocket actually mean?
The Associated Press described the system as having a solid-fuel booster that accelerates it, followed by a jet engine.
Whether the hybrid drone-rocket Palianytsia is a new class of weapon remains to be seen.
