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Joint Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office

Friday, August 27, 2021

What is it?

The Joint Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office (JCO) leads and directs joint Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-sUAS) doctrine, requirements, materiel and training to establish joint solutions to address current and future small UAS threats.

What are the current and past efforts of the Army?

The JCO was established by the Secretary of the Army, in February 2020, under a 2-Star Director within the Army G-3/5/7 and the Army Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO) is assigned as the materiel and acquisition lead for the JCO. Specific accomplishments include:

  • Completed an operational assessment of fielded C-sUAS capabilities and selected 10 initial Joint C-sUAS systems for continued investments.
  • Published the DoD C-sUAS Strategy providing the framework for addressing sUAS threats and hazards in the homeland, host nations, and contingency locations.
  • Published the Joint C-sUAS Operational Requirements, providing parameters that address current and future C-sUAS capabilities.
  • Finalized the common C-sUAS test range decision and C-sUAS testing protocols, which approved three test ranges to support C-sUAS capability and limitation testing and established standards for all C-sUAS testing.
  • Held the first of an on-going series of semi-annual demonstrations in April 2021 at Yuma Proving Ground where vendors displayed C-sUAS capabilities focused on Low Collateral Effects Interceptors.
  • Published Joint Knowledge Online (JKO) familiarization and training modules and reference guides to assist Warfighter effectiveness.

What continued efforts does the Army have planned?

The JCO will continue to work with the services and interagency stakeholders in developing synchronized, multi-domain C-sUAS solutions. Specific efforts include:

  • Establish Joint training and doctrine required to deliver trained forces and non-materiel solutions to enhance Joint C-sUAS operations.
  • Conduct the next semi-annual industry demonstration in September to continue evaluating emerging technologies that close gaps, inform requirements, and promote innovation.
  • Build the C-sUAS team with interagency/international partners.
  • Monitor global sUAS incident reporting and provide rapid response support.
  • Work with the Intelligence Community to develop threat assessments.

Why is this important to the Army?

Adversary sUAS represent a rapidly proliferating, low cost, high-reward and potentially lethal and damaging capability against U.S. personnel, critical assets and interests.

The Army and the broader DoD must modernize and transform its C-sUAS capabilities to enable the nation to win against adversaries that have already effectively leveraged sUAS technology that places its personnel, critical assets and interests at risk.

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Focus Quote for the Day

The Army needs to be very attentive to challenges like counter UAS for example.…those are absolutely areas that we need to be working on in terms of developing our capabilities and obviously being able to test our capabilities.

— Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth

Testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), Thursday, May 13, 2021