USMC Countering Small Unmanned Aircrafts
by USMC Program Executive Officer Land Systems July
16,
2022
The battle to keep Marines and their
critical assets safe is constantly evolving. As technology advances,
so does the need to field more cutting-edge equipment to counter
threats, such as those posed by small unmanned aerial systems.
July 12, 2022 - A small unmanned aerial system flies over Naval Base Ventura County, Point Mugu, California. Program Executive Officer Land Systems recently started delivering the Installation-Counter small Unmanned Aircraft Systems system to select Marine Corps installations. Known as I-CsUAS, the system is designed to protect Marine Corps installations by detecting, identifying, tracking and defeating small UASes such as commercially-available drones. (U.S. Navy photo by Ensign Drew Verbis)
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With these challenges in mind, Program
Executive Officer Land Systems is fielding the Installa-tion-Counter
small Unmanned Aircraft Systems. Known as I-CsUAS, the system is
designed to protect Marine Corps installations by detecting,
identifying, tracking and defeating small Unmanned Aircraft Systems.
“The Marine Corps, and DOD in general, required the capability
to defend against sUAS years ago,” said Program Manager for
Ground-Based Air Defense at PEO Land Systems Don Kelley. “The threat
of sUAS is only proliferating every day. The bottom line is, we need
to provide this capability to our Marines as rapidly as possible.”
I-CsUAS features an integrated system equipped to carry out all
phases necessary to counter small unmanned aerial systems such as
commercially-available drones, said Kelley. The system will
primarily provide a service to ensure Marines or security forces
have the capability to defend installations against sUAS at all
times.
Fixed Site Project Officer for Program Manager Ground
Based Air Defense at PEO Land Systems Maj. Kyle Yakopovich said I-CsUAS
is intended to defeat Commercial Off-The-Shelf Group 1 and Group 2
UAS. I-CsUAS also provides detection, tracking and identification
capabilities.
“What makes this system interesting is it
fuses multiple modalities together into a single system,” Yakopovich
said. “This allows us to more accurately detect, track and identify
[small unmanned aircraft systems].”
Yakopovich said the
program’s system is equipped with a few different components for
better detection and ultimately, defense. The Long Range Sentry
Tower is comprised of a radar system and an optical sensor, and
works in conjunction with a passive Radio Frequency detection
capability to present the operator with a visual depiction of the
threat’s flight path.
While each of the towers’ sensor
components are already widely in use, Yakopovich said I-CsUAS is
special because it uses Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
to constantly and autonomously analyze the sensor data faster and
more accurately than a human operator. The system enhances the
capability to detect, track, and identify the threat while reducing
the amount of manpower previously required to perform these actions.
“In previous years, we had the same components: the radar,
the camera and the RF detection,” Yakopovich said. “But it was
time-intensive, training-intensive and manpower-intensive. You had
to have a Marine dedicate all of that time if you wanted to have
24-hour, continuous coverage. Now, you can free up a Marine’s labor
using the I-CsUAS, which will automatically alert the user if
suspicious activity is determined.”
Yakopovich also said the
I-CsUAS also has a separate non-kinetic defeat capability that has
proven itself capable in other programs within PM GBAD.
Using this capability, a Marine who has detected an intruding sUAS
is able to disrupt the sUAS communication link. This enables Marines
operating the LRST-42 or LSTR-82 tower will be able to determine the
drone’s point of origin.
PM GBAD’s Fixed Site Product Manager
Jessica McCauley said the Marine Corps plans to use this technology
to defend critical assets, following the requirement set forth in
Title 10 of the U.S. Code, which outlines the role and
responsibilities of our nation’s armed forces.
“The I-CsUAS
protects the facility by detecting, tracking identifying the drone
and empowering law enforcement to defeat it,” McCauley said. “We are
delivering a system to select installations, providing them the
ability to conduct that kill chain in order to protect critical
assets against small UAS threats.”
McCauley said that when
she was selected for her position within PM GBAD Fixed Site in
October 2020, the PEO LS team began working on I-CsUAS from
inception of requirements to to-day’s current system.
“For me
personally, it's a challenge because this is non-traditional
acquisition. We are utilizing a contract through the Combat
Development and Integration (CD&I) office to provide counter UAS as
a service. We are challenging traditional acquisition,” said
McCauley.
“We also did a lot of legwork with our security
classification guide that has challenged traditional counter UAS
security classification as well. So those types of things as we work
through those challenges has been enjoyable, but also being able to
deliver capability quickly with an urgent statement of need,” she
said.
“These small commercial off-the-shelf drones--they're
everywhere,” Yakopovich said. “You can't walk into a park without
seeing them, and our enemies know how to use them. If you follow the
news you can read articles about these drones being used as weapons
of war in places like Ukraine, and those drones are capable of doing
similar damage here at home. We're delivering these systems to CONUS
locations and defending certain assets aboard those installations
that have been deemed critical to national security.”
“Use
your imagination of how much damage and chaos could be done by these
small commercial off-the-shelf drones by attacking or otherwise
harassing domestic Marine Corps installations. That's why we're
doing this — to protect those assets and to enable the warfighter to
do what the warfighter should be doing, which is keeping his focus
oriented toward the enemy.”
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