Counter-UAS Long Bow

Countering the rapid evolution in capability, sophistication, and scale of UAS will require a comprehensive multi-pronged approach. The Zone 5 proposed solution integrates four key elements.  Agile, cost effective, higher-velocity Low Collateral Effects Interceptors (LCEI) that can defeat a broad spectrum of existing and emerging threats outside the wire, including 100 lb. aircraft travelling 100 knots with highly dynamic flight paths. The proposed Zone 5 LCEI has significantly higher agility and speed than existing multirotor systems, with high performance COTS onboard compute to take advantage of the latest Artificial Intelligence (AI) for acquisition and high-speed tracking of maneuvering targets. It is designed to be manufacturable at large scale and low cost, incorporating existing COTS and high TRL components. And it is built using Zone 5’s extensive experience with modular, open platforms to allow it to integrate with a multi-layered C-UAS defense.  A user-centric Battle Management System that enables Human Machine Teaming (HMT) in a high speed, high threat environment. The proposed Zone 5 interface will fuse a comprehensive array of fixed and deployable sensor arrays, account for kinetic and non-kinetic effectors, and ultimately scale to detect, ID, and track thousands of threats and effects in real time. The Battle Management System will heavily leverage automated and/or autonomous coordinated behaviors to facilitate rapid response tailored by operator oversight. And it is based on a modular, open architectures to quickly integrate the maximum number of effect options, prevent vendor lock, and future-proof collaborative development and operation.  Advanced autonomy.  AI will be used at the level of each effect and at the level of the Battle Management System as a whole. Autonomous capabilities will prioritize targets based on threat level and engagement tactics, execute large scale actions, and guide individual effects.   A unified Modeling and Simulation (M&S) infrastructure. A unified modeling and simulation environment will optimize the development, deployment, and operation of new and existing C-UAS components, while enabling immediate testing and operator training to respond to a diverse array of scenarios. The proposed Zone 5 unified framework will be based on a Modular Open Systems Architecture (MOSA) approach, to allow disparate capabilities to interact seamlessly and bring in a wide array of autonomous operational components for testing. It will be highly scalable via secure cloud compute resources to enable real time simulations with hundreds of effects and to generate the quantity of simulations required to train autonomy algorithms.