FORT SILL, Okla. (Dec. 15, 2016) -- The Fires Center of Excellence (FCoE) hosted its third annual Army Counter Unmanned Aircraft System (C-UAS) Summit at Fort Sill, Dec. 6-8.
The summit, which was broken into a two-day government-only session and a one-day industry portion, attracted more than 300 participants from various Army centers of excellence, joint and service agencies, combatant commands and members of the science, technology, and acquisition community.
"The turn-out for the C-UAS summit was tremendous," said Lt. Col. Rhonda Williams, the lead C-UAS action officer for the FCoE. "It clearly reflects the importance and urgency the Department of Defense has placed on defeating a threat which has steadily proliferated in both number and capability over the past few years."
Currently, there are more than 600 types of UAS used in more than 80 countries. The Consumer Electronics Association estimates that 700,000 new UAS will be sold to commercial and recreational users in the United States in 2016.
"The production of small UAS is simple, rapid, and inexpensive," said Williams. "We expect UAS technological capabilities to increase tremendously as commercialization of the product continues to evolve."
During recent combat operations in the Crimea, Ukraine, and Syria, UAS fixed and rotary wing capabilities were successfully integrated into military operations. These systems provided reconnaissance, surveillance, intelligence, and target acquisition capability against soldiers, installations, and infrastructure, often with lethal effects.
"Throughout the Ukraine conflict, Russian-backed separatists have not only used unarmed reconnaissance drones to inform their forces about the opponent's movements and positions, but also successfully integrated UAS targeting capability for artillery fires," said Williams. "The artillery fires effects on static and maneuver formations were devastating."
Williams said the C-UAS summit has shown unclassified video in previous years to acquaint everyone with the potential of these systems.
"It definitely drives home why it is important to defeat the threat of UAS as a combat enabler," she said.
The mix of attendees at the summit reflected the "whole government approach" contained in the Army's C-UAS strategy which is aimed at detecting, identifying, and defeating the growing unmanned aircraft threats posed to the warfighting community.
The approach has resulted in significant and growing information sharing, cooperation, and collaboration between government agencies and the services. Consistent with this theme, the Navy, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard and Joint Staff provided updates on the status of their respective C-UAS development efforts.
"Our analysis led us to conclude that the C-UAS mission must be viewed as an inherently joint combined arms operation," said Col. Doug White, Training and Doctrine Command Capability Manager Air Defense Artillery Brigade. "There exists no single Army, joint, or multinational capability that can, from either a proficiency or sufficiency standpoint, completely defeat the UAS threat."
While air defense forces play a key role within the Army framework, success in the C-UAS mission requires integration of combined arms capabilities across all seven warfighting functions and 20 Army warfighting challenges.
"We cannot view C-UAS as an exclusive air defense artillery or fires problem," said White.
All Army centers of excellence provided material for presentation and participated in lively, productive discussions throughout the summit.
"The Army's existing capabilities and ongoing work to counter-threat UAS must be energized in conjunction with efforts that facilitate an Armywide assessment across all domains. Having active participation by the various Army CoEs at the summit and during the Integrated Capabilities Development Team process brings synergy and a holistic approach to C-UAS strategy implementation," said White.
When questioned on whether the C-UAS Summit achieved its goals and objectives, Williams concluded the formal discussion.
"The challenge posed by threat UAS is extremely challenging and daunting," said Williams. "Exploring interoperable and interdependent joint solutions and bridging some level of shared capability with our fellow centers of excellence and services provide a relevant framework for incorporating immediate measures to protect the force now and provide direction toward achieving a joint combined arms approach to defeat emerging UAS capabilities in the future. The Department of Defense has a sound playbook for defeating this threat and working together with industry and our allies, we will be successful."
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