Compact Destructive Intercept Device for Layered Counter-UAS System

The Army has a need for squad-level counter-UAS (C-UAS) systems to protect against the growing threat of UAS attacks. Current C-UAS approaches are typically designed for stationary or vehicle-based systems where size, weight, and power are not of critical importance. In addition, these systems are often very expensive to implement, which will not be a successful future strategy to address the exponentially growing incidence of many small, inexpensive UAS threats. As a result, current systems are unable to provide C-UAS capability at the squad or individual soldier level. In order to address this issue, many C-UAS system manufacturers are developing portable versions of their standard C-UAS devices, which will help to address squad-level C-UAS needs. These layered systems typically address location, tracking, classification, and soft engagement of UAS threats, but there are few, if any, compact solutions that provide hard-kill capability as a last line of defense. A new low-cost, hard-kill solution is needed fill this critical void in the layered C-UAS approach. Cornerstone Research Group, Inc. (CRG) proposes to develop a low-cost hard-kill device and combine it with an existing layered open-software system approach.