Drones, the Air Littoral, and the Looming Irrelevance of the USAF

[Kirkhill]

This Army unit is the first to field new company and battalion drones

The new drones fit different mission profiles at the tactical level.

www.defensenews.com

Soldiers with the 10th Mountain Division, which is currently deployed in Romania, recently became the first Army unit to field the service’s newest reconnaissance drones.

The 317th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, out of Fort Drum, New York, employed the Skydio and GhostX systems during training operations at Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base, Romania, according to an Army release.

The Skydio X10D drone is a short-range recon aircraft that can fly up to 5 kilometers and stay aloft for approximately 30 minutes, according to the release. Typically, the Skydio is deployed by infantry and scout platoons on dismounted patrols, providing soldiers with a better snapshot of their immediate area during mission planning.

The GhostX, made by Anduril, goes a bit farther. It can fly up to 15 kilometers and stay in the air for an hour. This platform is geared toward a company commander’s needs in a larger area of operation.

“You have to be a qualified aircraft operator before you’re able to put the aircraft in the air, so we run an initial qualification program for multiple units in our brigade,” said Staff Sgt. Kevin Sweeny, counter-drone NCO in charge for Delta Company, 317th BEB.

During the late November training, the unit qualified 132 Skydio operators, according to the release.

“They can take the [Sydio] aircraft out of its case, assemble it, mission plan and get it in the air in less than 10 minutes,” Sweeny said.

Every company in the 3rd BCT is slated to receive a Skydio system

The drone certification process is MOS-agnostic.

“The end state of this whole exercise is to test the personnel, the structure of the platoon and the communication between the squads and how we work together as a whole,” said 1st Lt. Alexis Gavrillis, an intelligence officer in the battalion.

 

[Kirkhill]

L3Harris exploring maritime variant of Vampire drone defence system

The truck-mounted Vampire guided-rocket system was one of the first counter-UAS weapons provided to Ukraine by the Pentagon, and may soon see active service aboard ships.

www.flightglobal.com

Maritime version of the VAMPIRE system now being offered.

Larger magazines available for the Marine environment. No reason to assume they couldn't be made available for the land environment.

Ukrainian VAMPIRE with 4 Round Fletcher launcher

Arnold also manufactures a 23 round launcher that weighs 449 kg fully loaded with APKWS missiles



No reason why it wouldn't be compatible with the Mission Master SP

 

[Colin Parkinson]

The ongoing cat and mouse game continues

 

[Kirkhill]

Anduril

Transforming US & allied military capabilities with advanced technology.

www.anduril.com

9/24/2024

Defence technology company Anduril Australia today has announced it has closed a contract for a three-year trial with the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) to demonstrate Anduril's air and ground defence capabilities at RAAF Base Darwin which will support the defence of Australia's northern Defence bases against drones and other threats.

Anduril's base protection capability takes a Family of Systems approach, deploying a range of active and passive sensors, and kinetic and non-kinetic effectors. The system is tailored to RAAF Base Darwin's specific security requirements and Darwin's unique environment.

The system is powered by Lattice, an open architecture software platform that allows for effective integration and command and control of Anduril and third party sensors and effectors. Lattice enables 24/7 persistent awareness and autonomous detection, classification, and tracking of objects of interest. It alerts users to potential ground or airborne threats and prompts users with options for mitigation or engagement.

The contract with the Royal Australian Air Force will allow Anduril Australia to deliver counter drone and counter intrusion as a capability-as-a-service. Anduril Australia will maintain continuous hardware and software system updates, and develop and deploy new capability to ensure the system remains relevant and effective against the rapidly changing threat landscape. This future-proofs the system at no additional cost to the customer.

Anduril Australia Executive Chairman and CEO, David Goodrich OAM, said: "Current conflicts have shown us how rapidly warfare has developed. It is critical that advanced technology is in place to protect Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel and equipment against air and ground attacks - now and into the future. Our capability-as-a-service approach is designed to anticipate and respond to rapid technological developments."

"Capability-as-a-service is new to defence industry, but frequently used in the tech industry where fast-moving developments need to be rapidly deployed. Hardware and software are regularly updated and upgraded as new developments are available. This is different to the traditional block upgrade process used in Defence where upgrades may only happen annually or even less frequently."

"Anduril's autonomous security capabilities provide 24x7 coverage against an extensive range of threats."

"Anduril is well known in Australia for its Ghost Shark maritime capability, but we are a multi-domain, multi-product company and I'm delighted to announce this contract with RAAF Base Darwin to share our proven counter UAS solution to provide the best technology to enhance protection of Australia's northern bases."

A spokesperson for the Royal Australian Air Force said: "The National Defence Strategy prioritises strengthening of our northern bases. This system will bring advanced technology to counter and deter intrusion of RAAF Base Darwin while building Defence's understanding of emerging capabilities that can help the ADF to meet future threats."

Anduril to supply "capability as service" defence to Canadian airports?

 

[Kirkhill]

I don’t know about the USAF being “irrelevant”, but a good read nonetheless.

Drones, the Air Littoral, and the Looming Irrelevance of the U.S. Air Force - War on the Rocks

Today, the U.S. Air Force faces an almost-existential crisis. During the past several years, the service has been battered by the loss of its prestigious

warontherocks.com

The USAF has now generated a report on what Airpower will look like in 2050: Damfino!

Actually they said the answer is "heterogeneous" ie All of the above.

https://www.af.mil/Portals/1/AirForcePriorities/DAF_2050_Final_30_Dec.pdf

RUSI commentary by Peter Layton.

https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2025/01/20/the_arrival_of_heterogeneous_airpower_1085747.html

 

[Kirkhill]

An unmanned combined arms assault

Ukraine launches robot-only assault against Russian troops for first time

Kyiv pushes back military forces with remote-controlled vehicles mounted with machine guns and kamikaze drones

www.telegraph.co.uk

A bit more on the uncrewed combined arms assault on Russian lines.

Why Ukraine's all-drone, multi-domain attack could be a 'seminal' moment in warfare - Breaking Defense

A December operation exclusively featured weaponized uncrewed ground vehicles and FPV attack drones and did not feature any crewed platforms or boots on the ground, according to a speaker at the International Armoured Vehicle conference.

breakingdefense.com

The December attack was confirmed by the National Guard of Ukraine, with a spokesperson at the time describing how “dozens” of uncrewed equipment had been used to conduct an assault near Lyptsi, equipped with machine guns and munitions.

Exact types of UGVs and FPV drones used during the attack were not disclosed but a defense source informed Breaking Defense that ground vehicles included the 4×4 ‘Ratel S’ which was developed through the Ukraine Government’s Brave1 Defence Innovation Forum.

Since 2022, a total of 15 THeMIS UGVs, produced by Milrem, have been used by the Ukrainians for cargo, casualty evacuation and demand. But Clayton suggested “additional orders are coming” for anti-tank, indirect fire and direct fire capabilities, as well as intelligence-gathering, communications relay and engineering.

The executive said it’s his aspiration to have more than 200 UGVs operating in Ukraine by the end of the year, fulfilling a variety of intelligence-gathering and combat roles.

THeMIS - Milrem

THeMIS Specifications - Milrem

milremrobotics.com

Technical specifications​

Length x Width x Height247 x 204 x 117 cm

Max Speed20 km/h

Weight1630 kg

Rated Payload Weight 750 kg

Maximum payload weight 1200 kg

Towing speed up to 80 km/h

Run time hybrid Up to 15h

Run time electric Up to 1,5h

Line of sight control rangeup to 1,5 km

Power optionsDiesel engine & electric generator

Power optionsBattery Pack, Lead acid or Li-ion

Air transportabilityDesigned according to STANAG 3542






If you don't have all the stuff you want how much can you accomplish with the stuff you have?