Recognizing adversary drone swarms as "the most significant threat at this time," the Pentagon is aiming to unify the military around a cohesive approach to address the challenge now and in the future, according to a Thursday DOD news release.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday signed the secretive Strategy for Countering Unmanned Systems, meant to bolster department-wide defenses against autonomous platforms in the air, at sea and on land.
It comes as wars waged in the Middle East, Ukraine and across the globe are increasingly seeing the use of sophisticated yet affordable autonomous systems, making it difficult for friendly forces to hide, concentrate, communicate and maneuver, according to an unclassified fact sheet discussing the new strategy. These drones also allow adversaries to more easily surveil, disrupt or attack U.S. forces, assets, and installations, potentially without attribution and with more precise strike capabilities, DOD added in the document.
"In recent years, adversary unmanned systems have evolved rapidly. These cheap systems are increasingly changing the battlefield, threatening U.S. installations, and wounding or killing our troops,” Austin said in a statement. “Drones and other unmanned systems will increasingly transform the security environment. Tackling these threats will not be easy. But the United States military is unrivaled in our ability to adapt to new challenges, and the department is moving out on making this strategy's vision a reality. The character of war is changing, and we will change with it."
Each of the military services are also pursuing ongoing efforts to research, develop and field kinetic and electronic warfare technologies to dismantle enemy drones, particularly in the homeland. The new strategy in particular branches off other high-profile DOD efforts to build a layered response to the threat, including the Joint Counter-Small UAS Office, the Warfighter Senior Integration Group and comes on the heels of the second phase of the Replicator initiative.
The Pentagon has established five “strategic ways” it will implement the counter-drone roadmap, the fact sheet states, including:
- Deepening DOD’s battlefield awareness, detection and understanding of unmanned trends and threats.
- Disrupting and degrading the networks that foster the proliferation of unmanned threats.
- Protecting and defending U.S. assets and interests against threats posed by autonomous systems.
- Bringing robust active and passive solutions to counter unmanned threats to scale through a next-generation acquisition style and expanded budget agility.
- Developing counter-drone capabilities as a mainstay in the future force design.
“This strategy marks a critical next step in the Department of Defense’s efforts to counter unmanned systems, but much work lies ahead,” the fact sheet notes. “The department will establish clear metrics and measures of effectiveness to track progress in achieving outcomes. Although the rapidly evolving nature of the threats posed by adversary use of unmanned systems means that the department will need to continually reassess our efforts, this strategy sets a foundation for action to meet this challenge.”
DOD will collaborate with defense industrial partners, overseas allies, Congress and other interagency partners to prioritize urgency in rolling out the counter-drone strategy, according to the Thursday statement.