HardKill: A Low-Cost Mobile Counter-UAS Solution for Expeditionary and Contested Environments

The HardKill system is a low-cost, portable, and AI-enabled Counter-Unmanned Aerial System (C-UAS) solution designed to provide robust protection for U.S. Air Force (USAF) air bases, airfields, and Forward Arming and Refueling Points (FARPs) against adversarial UAS threats. The system integrates three core capabilities—Detect, Track & Identify, and Mitigate—into a compact and rapidly deployable architecture. The Detect function employs a Large Language Model (LLM)-enhanced sensor fusion engine, combining multi-modal inputs with AI-driven threat classification to enhance situational awareness. The Track & Identify function utilizes a Frequency-Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radar, providing real-time, high-resolution UAS tracking and classification, ensuring accurate target identification in complex operational environments. The Mitigate function features a kinetic effector, enabling a hard-kill defeat mechanism capable of neutralizing hostile drones with precision. HardKill is optimized for rapid deployment and integration with existing USAF base defense architectures, supporting Agile Combat Employment (ACE) and countering evolving drone threats in contested and austere environments. The system is designed for low cost, modularity, and autonomous operation, ensuring minimal operator burden and scalable coverage across varied mission sets. By leveraging advanced AI-driven detection, radar-based tracking, and kinetic defeat mechanisms, HardKill provides a next-generation C-UAS capability to safeguard critical USAF assets and personnel from the growing threat of unmanned aerial systems. This effort will develop and demonstrate a TRL 5/6 prototype, with a pathway toward operational fielding under USAF mission sets requiring expeditionary, scalable, and cost-effective counter-UAS solutions