Pentagon plans to hold first C-sUAS demo in April

The Pentagon is planning to give industry the first opportunity to demonstrate technology for its counter-drone efforts in April, according to the service official in charge of the Army-led Joint Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office.

The Defense Department on Jan. 7 released its joint C-sUAS strategy and is expected to release an implementation plan at the end of the month. The strategy includes three lines of effort: readying the force, defending the force and collaborating with allies and leveraging existing relationships.

Maj. Gen. Sean Gainey, during a Jan. 8 Center for Strategic and International Studies virtual event, said the Army's Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO) alongside the Air Force will hold the event in April for industry to showcase their "low-collateral effectors."

A notice is expected to go out Jan. 15. asking industry to bring their capabilities to Yuma Proving Ground, AZ.

"The current systems, if they can't keep up with the requirements and we meet a point where they no longer are able, we off-ramp that component capability and then we on-ramp what's next based off of how we're delegating assignment to the service and how they're bringing that with RCCTO to our standard range where those systems are evaluated," Gainey said.

The JCO has planned additional demonstrations at other common test ranges, but Gainey did not elaborate when or where the demonstrations will be held. Following the demonstrations, the JCO will downselect the best systems, he added.