As imaginative and highly successful combat operations go, Ukraine’s Operation Spider Web was next level, destroying a good part of Russia’s strategic bomber force deep inside Russia and outraging Vladimir Putin.
But right around the world, nations were pondering whether a motivated adversary could inflict similar damage on their own expensive combat aircraft, too often arrayed in the open with zero or minimal protection against drone attack.
It’s not just warplanes. Small weaponised drones might not sink a ship but they could damage its radar. Or attack a fuel tank farm. Or target a leader for assassination. Or terrorise a sporting match.
Among those thinking hard about this new threat is the Australian Defence Force which in November last year launched Project Land 156 to acquire a suite of Counter-Small Uncrewed Aerial Systems (CsUAS).
Land 156 envisages a complete CsUAS system of sensors such as electro-optic, active and passive radars and acoustic and thermal sensors, integrated with command and control systems to coordinate cueing and engagement of multiple effectors.
Those effectors could include radio frequency (RF), electromagnetic, directed energy and kinetic hard kill to defeat CsUAS in a designated area.
Step one is selection of a systems integration partner which could be announced in August.
In May, Defence’s Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator (ASCA) launched Mission Syracuse, seeking industry support to enhance Defence’s counter drone capabilities.
Small lethal UAS first emerged in fighting in Iraq a decade ago when the terror group Islamic State employed commercial quadcopter drones to drop bomblets, though without great effect.
In Ukraine they came of age, used by both sides from day one, rapidly evolving to deliver new effects or to sidestep countermeasures. They will surely be encountered by the ADF in any future operations, employed by malign or nuisance actors.
Australia possesses significant and world class CsUAS capabilities.
Sydney-based DroneShield offers a range of drone RF detection and jamming systems that have been exported to the US and Europe and are in use in Ukraine.
Most recently the Dutch Military used DroneShield’s DroneGuns to protect the NATO summit in The Hague.
DroneShield chief executive officer Oleg Vornick said Operation Spider Web underscored a critical lesson to all defence forces - a few low-cost drones can inflict billions in damage, neutralising high-value assets with minimal risk to the attacker.
“It also demonstrates how a non-state actor or hostile nation – operating under plausible deniability – might destroy high-value military assets during peacetime, without triggering a direct or proportional military response. It's a textbook example of asymmetric warfare, where affordability, creativity, and agility outmanoeuvre traditional military might,” he said.
Vornik said the technology to counter these drone threats was available and operational.
“Modern counter-drone systems, incorporating radar, radio frequency detection, electronic warfare and directed energy capabilities, are already active across global deployments,” he said.
“Layered effectors enable a scalable response, from safely neutralising wayward hobbyist drones, to defeating complex swarm attacks and unconventional drone threats. These are mature, rapidly evolving solutions, ready now for the battlespace of today and tomorrow.”
DroneShield is pitching to be Land 156 systems integration partner.
So is Anduril Australia, subsidiary of the US based advanced technology company Anduril.
Anduril Australia chief executive David Goodrich said the RAAF had begun trialling state-of-the-art counter-drone equipment from Anduril at RAAF Darwin.
“This equipment has been designed, tested and proven in the most austere active military hazard zones in the world and would have detected a Spider’s Web type attack, despite the sophisticated navigation techniques that rendered them invisible to most other counter-drone systems,” he said.
Goodrich said Anduril had a strong track record as Systems Integration Partner for the US Special Operations Command counter unmanned systems (CUxS) program.
“Anduril Australia would be excited to partner with Australia’s thriving local industry on impressive, novel solutions for countering small drones in our local environment,” he said.
“Our Lattice operating system seamlessly integrates an unlimited number of sensors and effectors into an easy to operate command and control user interface. To be successful in this critical domain requires a software first approach with the capability to rapidly respond to evolving threats with flexible, adaptable, and rapidly deployable technology.”
Canberra-based Electro Optic Systems (EOS) is also pitching for Land 156, but as a supplier of its gun and maybe laser systems.
Initially drones in Ukraine featured radio frequency links for command, control and imagery.
That made them susceptible to detection and jamming, which has become so omnipresent that both sides have begun using drones linked to their controller by a long fibre optic cable, making them immune to RF detection and countermeasures.
Hence a rise in interest in kinetic effectors, particularly gun systems such as EOS Slinger which uses a 30mm autocannon. Firing proximity fused rounds, Slinger can achieve one or two shot kills on small drones beyond two kilometres.
EOS chief executive officer Andreas Schwer said EOS had opted not to seek to be Land 156 prime contractor but to offer its technology to other competitors.
“That gives us quite a high likelihood of success and we don’t burn bridges,” he said.
“The most likely scenario is they will choose a very basic system because of affordability and complexity. The basis system will predominantly have soft kill and cannon-based air defence.
“Soft kill to protect homeland security related critical infrastructure and hard kill more for the military applications. I am not sure whether they will go for the laser option here because of market readiness and complexity.”
Defence has already let the first contracts around Land 156 worth around $30 million to acquire basic soldier wearable tech capable of detecting, tracking, identifying and neutralising small adversary UAS systems.
According to InnovationAus.com, the largest deal, worth $5.7 million went to UK-based counter-drone company Steelrock Technologies, which produces the NightFighter portable RF drone countermeasure system.
DroneShield secured a $5 million contract, while US tech company CACI-ISS, LLC was awarded a contract for $3.4 million.
Four other Australian companies, SouthTech Systems, HighCom Technology, Precision Technic Defence and Key Options, were awarded just under $12 million in contracts.