US Sending Experimental Anti-Drone Weapons to Ukraine

The U.S. is sending anti-drone missiles as part of an experimental platform to help Ukraine down the Iranian-built drones that have devastated its energy infrastructure, according to representatives of government contracting company SAIC.Get more news about Anti Drone Gun,you can vist our website!

On Tuesday, the U.S. announced a large package of military aid to Ukraine focused on air defense, including what it called “10 mobile c-UAS laser-guided rocket systems.”

That follows a January competition held by the U.S. Army, which was seeking a system to fight off Shahed-136 suicide drones. SAIC, which participated in the competition, is in the running to send ten of the weapons to Ukraine, a company representative told Defense One on the sidelines of the Association of the U.S. Army’s Global Force Symposium last week.

Russia has used Shahed-136s to attack not just Ukrainian military forces, but also enough civilian infrastructure to cause blackouts across the besieged country. Ukraine has downed many of the Iranian-made drones, which cost about $20,000 apiece, but sometimes is forced to use $500,000 air-defense missiles to do so.

The Army and one other competitor in the test, Invariant Systems, did not confirm that the test was to provide systems to Ukraine, but confirmed other details that support SAIC’s statements.

Contracting documents provided by the Army indicate that the test objective was to destroy Class Three drones—that is, aircraft that weigh more than 55 pounds. The Shahed-136 weighs about 440 pounds.

Other details in the contracting document also conform to information provided by SAIC. For instance, the documents say a winning design should be ready to ship to partner nations within 30 to 90 days of a contract award—roughly the amount of time between the January test and the April news that the systems were being sent to Ukraine.

The contract also says the systems might be funded with Title 22 authorities, which are used to fund security assistance to Ukraine.

In the January test, SAIC used BAE’s APKWS laser-guided rockets, which achieved a 100-percent hit rate, the company representative said.

And at less than $30,000 apiece, the rockets are cheaper than Ukraine’s larger air-defense missiles, said Greg Fortier, the vice president of SAIC’s Army Business Unit.

The system also includes a M240 machine-gun mount and an electronic warfare system that can take control of a commercial drone, including any DJI-brand system not operating with advanced encryption, said Jeremy Davidson, an SAIC systems engineer. DJI drones are frequently used by both sides in Ukraine.