HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has brought into stark relief that the U.S. Army needs not just powerful vehicles and artillery, but lots and lots of simpler unmanned and counter-unmanned systems for drone warfare.
“When America brings its best technology-wise, it’s exquisite, and we should keep doing that,” Gen. Jim Rainey, the head of Army Futures Command, said Thursday at AUSA’s Global Force Symposium. “At the same time, we should buy cheap mass. [There’s a] lot of value in 30mm cheap rounds that can knock down UAVs, even if you have to shoot a burst of 30 at it.”
One company has a 3D-printed unmanned aerial vehicle on offer as part of the Army’s Low Altitude Stalking and Strike Ordnance, or LASSO, program, which is due to put out a request for proposals any day now.
Dubbed the Hellhound S3, the turbojet-powered drone doesn’t look like the quadcopter you probably picture when you think of an armed UAV. It looks like a fighter jet, and it can be loaded up with not only weapons but sensors or electronic warfare jammers.
“The LASSO program brings some really unique requirements – you want something that gives you loiter time, but also allows you to do precision strike at a target,” Sheila Cummings, CEO of Cummings Aerospace, told Defense One. “And so it’s a combination of both missile—and, if you will—more traditional aircraft design.”
It topped out at 384 miles an hour during its most recent test in January, Cummings said, at Fort Benning, Georgia, during the latest Army Expeditionary Warrior Experiment.
“The idea is one vehicle, multiple payloads, giving the soldier the maximum flexibility to support whatever the mission needs are in the battlefield,” she added.
The whole system weighs less than 25 pounds and allows soldiers to change out payloads in under five minutes, without tools. It’s also completely 3D-printed, so it can be manufactured in a few hours with inexpensive materials, and repaired on the battlefield.
“So imagine you have a shipping container with 3D printers in a forward operating base,” Cummings said. “The warfighter could ultimately replace parts that may get broken or damaged, really minimizing that logistics train by putting that capability in the forward operating base.”
In addition to sending up its own drones, the Army is in desperate need of something to counter drone swarms, a key tactic of Russia’s ground war in Ukraine.
While Rainey mentioned shooting bullets at a drone, Leonardo DRS is developing a counter-drone laser for mounting atop a Stryker vehicle.
“We cannot continue to shoot, you know, a $1,500 drone with a $100,000 missile, right? Or a million dollar missile,” Ed House, a senior director of business development, told Defense One. “And you know, you hear senior Army leaders say, ‘Hey, we’ve got to get to a lower price point per shot.’ That’s what a laser brings to the game.”
The Blue Halo 26kW had a successful test in August and then went through two weeks of Army evaluation in December.
“We were able to demonstrate that you could shoot the laser at a drone while you’re shooting a 7.62mm machine gun simultaneously against a ground target, and both were effective,” House said.
Their engineers estimate they could run the laser for two straight minutes at a time without burning it out, House added, and testing has shown it only takes a few seconds to shoot down a drone.
The system comes with a built-in generator so there’s no downtime for recharging. The laser sits alongside a larger counter-UAS Stryker system that also has a 30mm cannon, multi-mission radars and a Coyote missile launcher.
“Did we prove that you could operate a laser without batteries? Yes, we did. Could you fire the machine gun at the same time you fire the laser? Yes, we can,” House said.
Only the 30mm cannon seems to interfere with the laser, he added, so company engineers are working on a fix.
The system is next due to participate in a live-fire exercise trial in June at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
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