Kinetic-Defeat Interdiction Munition with Expeditious Reorienting Action (KIMERA) for Remote Engagement of Small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS)

Nearly all commercially available kinetic counter unmanned aerial systems (CUAS) require some form of vehicle-mounted targeting and tracking or human-in-the-loop to perform their mission. The average cost of deployed CUAS technologies is over $100k per system, and still they have difficulty destroying small group 1 and 2 UAS (sUAS). This leaves the U.S. and allies at a significant cost and operational disadvantage, particularly when considering how conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East have highlighted sUAS's devasting asymmetric capabilities to efficiently destroy larger and much more expensive targets when fitted with weaponized payloads. The proposed small-arms KIMERA ("ky-MEER-ah") munition will restore a favorable asymmetric paradigm, where weaponized sUAS can be destroyed for a fraction of the cost of existing deployed systems.ááKIMERA is a self-contained, intelligent, autonomous, and lightweight munition that includes all subsystems and functionality necessary for sUAS engagement in an inexpensive small-arms form factor deployable from common shoulder-fired weapons. Phase I efforts demonstrated a TRL 3 concept which met all research and development objectives. KIMERA utilizes a millimeter wave radar to identify and track sUAS along its trajectory, reorients itself to point a novel additively manufactured fragmentation warhead toward the target, and finally detonates the warhead to eject a focused conical fragment beam at the sUAS to perforate and destroy critical subsystems, likely leading to a crash. Phase I R&D efforts demonstrated sUAS kill probabilities greater than 50 percent within five meters of the detonation point, and greater than 90 percent within three meters, significantly relaxing operator shot placement requirements. No external targeting, guidance, or control systems are required, and this advanced munition is packaged within a compact 12-gauge form factor.