14 juin 2019 | International, Autre défense

Invisible Interdiction: Air Force Awards Contract for Rail-Mounted Anti-Drone System

By: Harry McNabb

While drone detection systems are proliferating recently, what to do when you've identified a rogue drone is still a problem. Solutions range from catcher drones equipped with nets to shoulder mounted “ray guns” and even drone hunting birds.

In a recent press release (below), Invisible Interdiction announced the award of a U.S. Air Force contract to design and test a small lightweight rail-mounted drone jamming module: a device that can be attached to other weapons carried by military personnel. We reached out to Invisible Interdiction president, Clay Wild to learn more about the development of their technology:

DRONELIFE: Congratulations on your award. Do you have a image that you could share with our readers?

Clay Wild: “The system itself is still a rendering, but I've attached a couple of photos that might be useful. It will be an interesting capability.”

DroneLife: Who is the Audience for your system? Whom is it designed for?

Clay Wild: “The initial users will be US Air Force Security Forces personnel. The guys who guard Air Force bases.

DRONELIFE: What is important about this award to Invisible Interdiction?

Clay Wild: “This is our first major contract award. We are going to provide Security Forces Airmen the ability to stop drones interfering with their operations without the need to carry extra equipment. Attaching the countermeasure to the weapon provides them instant access to this device”.

DRONELIFE: Tell us a little bit about Invisible Interdiction and how you got started.

Clay Wild: “Invisible Interdiction was started only a year ago in March 2018 but we've been in the counter-drone business for almost four years now with other organizations. We are currently marketing to defense agencies in the U.S. but have a very active international representative network around the world introducing our capabilities to those military and police agencies that are allowed to deploy jamming capabilities. As you are aware, the RF jamming is a very sensitive technology around the world because of the potential for collateral effects. With most drones using the WIFI bands for control, jamming this part of the spectrum can impact everyday things like WIFI routers, Bluetooth devices, etc. We happen to design very directional and low-power jamming systems, but they can be temporarily impactful nonetheless. The use of this, and other types of countermeasures, is an interesting debate that is just starting.”

DRONELIFE: How did you come up with the name of the company?

Clay Wild: “The company name Invisible Interdiction refers to the use of ‘invisible' RF energy for interdiction of errant drones. This appeared to be an interesting play on what we do. Once folks think about it for a minute, the light goes on and..”oh yeah, I get it.”

The following is an Invisible Interdiction press release.

Invisible Interdiction Awarded Air Force Contract for Rail-mounted
UAS Denial System.

Melbourne, FL, May 30, 2019: Melbourne, Florida based Invisible Interdiction has

been awarded a contract to design, test and qualify a very small, lightweight rail-
mounted C-UAS jamming module. This Phase 3 contract is the result of a Special Topic

SBIR award originally envisioned by the Air Force's Las Vegas-based innovation hub
called AFWERX. Several barriers to working with the Air Force were removed including
a shorter application process, an accelerated contract award and a shorter period of
performance. This effort started in the fall of 2018 in response to the Air Force's pursuit
of innovative counter-drone technologies. Invisible Interdiction submitted a concept
that was selected and proven feasible late last year. This UAS denial system will be
similar in size and weight to existing rail-mounted aiming lasers that are mounted on
the Picatinny rail of issued shotguns or M4 rifles. Noted Invisible Interdiction CEO Bryan
Sydnor, “We already have considerable experience designing small and lightweight
hand-held and modular jamming systems. This weapon attachable jamming module
will test our ability to design an effective capability that easily attaches to the service
rifle or shotgun.” Prototype testing and qualification is scheduled for later this summer
with production units available by the end of 2019.

https://dronelife.com/2019/06/12/invisible-interdiction-air-force-awards-contract-for-rail-mounted-anti-drone-system/

Sur le même sujet

  • La France, l’Allemagne et l’Espagne lancent le chantier de rénovation du Tigre

    2 novembre 2020 | International, Aérospatial

    La France, l’Allemagne et l’Espagne lancent le chantier de rénovation du Tigre

    La France, l'Allemagne et l'Espagne s'apprêtent à lancer en novembre la phase de réalisation du programme d'hélicoptère d'attaque « Tigre standard 3 » sur la base d'une coopération entre les trois pays. La France va embarquer le nouveau missile de MBDA dans ce futur Tigre au standard 3, selon La Tribune. Le MAST-F a une capacité de neutralisation de combattants, de cibles blindées et d'infrastructures, de jour comme de nuit jusqu'à 8 000 mètres. La Tribune du 30 octobre 2020

  • Advanced Air and Missile Defense, in the Hands of Soldiers

    29 mai 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Terrestre

    Advanced Air and Missile Defense, in the Hands of Soldiers

    May 27, 2020 - It's a cold December morning at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, and two surrogate cruise missile targets have just been launched, one after the other. They are flying separate courses among the jagged San Andres and Sacramento mountains toward soldiers in a U.S. Army Air and Missile Defense unit at a test site called TAC-2 – Tactical Command Post 2. These sophisticated targets precisely mimic real cruise missile threats and can take advantage of this terrain to hide from the radars and sensors commanders have positioned in the area. This can create gaps in tracking that make the job of interceptor missiles or other defensive weapons more difficult – you can't hit what you can't see. Today, though, their maneuvers won't enable them to evade detection. This is Flight Test 5 (FT-5), the most sophisticated and difficult development test yet for the Army's Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) Battle Command System (IBCS), developed by Northrop Grumman. High above the range, sensors aboard U.S. Air Force F-35 fighter aircraft see and acquire the two surrogate missiles. IBCS integrates the aircraft sensor data with that of available ground sensors, including Sentinel, Patriot weapon system and U.S. Marine Corps TPS-59 radars. All share information via the IBCS Integrated Fire Control Network (IFCN). As one sensor loses sight of the threats – and each will at some point – the targets are acquired by other sensors on the IFCN, enabling IBCS to create a precise, uninterrupted composite track of each missile's movements. With data from every sensor, IBCS produces a single integrated air picture on the screens of the air defense soldiers at TAC-2. They see every change in altitude and direction as the two surrogate missiles paint tracks across their screens. Because IBCS enables joint weapons as well as joint sensors, the defenders at the controls can select the best effector to use against these targets. Today, the soldiers are about to launch two Patriot Advanced Capability 2 (PAC-2) interceptor missiles. “Without IBCS, all those different sensors operate independently, creating opportunities for threats to avoid detection as they fly to a target,” explained Northrop Grumman IBCS Program Director Mark Rist. “Without being integrated onto a network, these sensors produce a more ambiguous, less-clear air picture, making engagements of threat systems more challenging.” He is monitoring FT-5 from miles away, in the test's mission control room. The soldiers at TAC-2 can be heard on the radio, calm but urgent voices reporting “target acquired” by airborne sensor, and talking of the “IP” or intercept point, and “kill box.” It's only been moments since the threats were launched, but now comes “Free to engage ... Missile away ... Missile away ...” One, then another PAC-2 interceptor missile is launched by the soldiers. IBCS is not only able to launch the missiles, but also plays a critical role in the engagement by actively closing the fire control loop and providing in-flight updates as the PAC-2s converge on their targets. The surrogate cruise missile targets are closing in and can now be seen on video in the control room – and then suddenly they can't: One, then the other disappears in a ball of fire as the PAC-2s destroy them. Cheers erupted in the control room, and those of Rist and his team may have been loudest among the many generals, colonels and visiting officials that day at White Sands. After years of effort, working closely and constantly with soldiers, FT-5 fully demonstrated IBCS's unprecedented capability to integrate sensors and effectors to detect, track and simultaneously engage multiple targets in flight. “Information is ammunition, and IBCS is providing soldiers with more,” Rist said. “We brought a lot of things together in this development test. It was the first including joint operations with the Air Force F-35 and Marine Corps radar systems, the first with Air Defense Artillery soldiers at the controls, and the first involving software developed using our Agile methodology.” FT-5 was the latest in a series of test successes, and further evidence of the program's maturity as soldiers train on IBCS equipment in preparation for an important Limited User Test (LUT) this spring. “I'm very proud of these soldiers and of the system's performance,” said Colonel Phil Rottenborn, Army IAMD project manager. “This was the first time soldiers conducted a live engagement using IBCS in a developmental test, and they showed we are ready to go into the operational test phase.” “Success!” said Col. Tony Behrens, Army Capability Manager for the Air and Missile Defense (AMD) Command, and a nearly 26-year career Air Defense Artillery (ADA) officer. “It showed me that an Army operator – not an engineer or software developer – can sit at that console and do his or her job. I am very comfortable and confident about the path we're on.” IBCS enables soldiers to be even more effective by integrating all the systems' data and providing a common command-and-control (C2). Soldiers will only need to learn to use the IBCS C2, instead of spending time becoming specialists on only one or two of a dozen different sensor and weapon systems. That enhances IBCS's already impressive battlefield survivability, because soldiers will be capable of using any of the available sensors with any available weapon systems at any command post connected to the self-connecting, self-healing IFCN. Also, less time will be spent in recurrent training, making more time available for teaching operators defense strategy and how to fight. The IBCS “every sensor; best effector” concept gives commanders greater flexibility in defense design, allowing them to position resources for greatest coverage in far less time essentially helping to change the way soldiers see and fight air battle. Northrop Grumman's open-architecture system-of-systems approach to IBCS eases the integration of any new or legacy sensor and effector systems, which is important for U.S. joint operations and to foreign governments. Poland has an agreement with the U.S. Army to purchase IBCS for modernization of the nation's WISLA medium-range air defense system, and other countries have expressed interest as well. With the success of FT-5, Northrop Grumman will now focus on the Army's Limited User Test planned for later this year, followed by the low-rate initial production and full-rate production phases of the system, to field IBCS to Army air defenders in fiscal year 2021. Behrens said the Army must have the IBCS capabilities to be effective and successful in future combat operations. “To me, it's beyond critical,” he said. “We're not just giving soldiers a new piece of equipment, a new piece of gear. We're going to give them an entirely new way of operating on the battlefield that is so much more efficient. But it has to start with the system that enables you to do that.” IBCS may also be the Army's first big step toward multi-domain convergence – the next level above integration. “Enabling multi-domain – or more accurately, all-domain – operations is vital to ensuring battlefield advantage and superiority,” said Brig. Gen. Brian Gibson, director of the Army's AMD Cross-Functional Team, at an Association of the U.S. Army event in early March. “When successfully fielded, IBCS will be one of the Army's pathfinder capabilities into what is becoming a top priority for our military leaders: joint, all-domain command and control.” Media Contact Kenneth Kesner 256-327-6889 Kenneth.Kesner@ngc.com View source version on Northrop Grumman: https://news.northropgrumman.com/news/features/advanced-air-and-missile-defense-in-the-hands-of-soldiers

  • To deter Arctic aggression, build the polar fleet we need

    26 octobre 2022 | International, Naval

    To deter Arctic aggression, build the polar fleet we need

    America should make substantial investments in its icebreaker industrial base and overall defense industrial base to help preserve its Arctic interest.

Toutes les nouvelles