The threat of unmanned aerial systems (UAS’s) to American interests within the continental United States and outside our borders is an ongoing concern. Continued and rapid improvements in technology not only are increasing the availability of these unmanned technologies, but also are:
- Allowing greater UAS payloads (i.e., payload weight divided by vehicle weight)
- Easing the ability to operate, fly, navigate and transport unmanned systems
- Lowering the cost to manufacture and operate this equipment
With these technological advances, however, also comes an increased potential for hostile actors to deploy UASs in very nefarious ways. The C-UAS Hard Kill Challenge will provide the Joint Improvised-Threat Defeat Organization (JIDO), U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM), Program Directorate Counter Rocket Artillery, Mortar Missiles (PD C-RAM) and other U.S. government and defense agencies — as well as our Five Eyes international intelligence coalition partners — with an opportunity to evaluate the current state of technology to defeat rotary and fixed-wing UASs.
To assess current technology, the JIDO, Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) is sponsoring a C-UAS Hard Kill Challenge at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico beginning Feb. 20 and running for approximately five weeks. The C-UAS Hard Kill Challenge is focused on evaluating “hard kill” technologies that can stop, bring down and defeat UASs. For the purpose of this event, “hard kill” shall be defined as the physical interruption of a UASs ability to maintain lift and continue its mission via the direct capture of the UAS, the physical destruction of the airframe and/or the permanent ability to disrupt the power to the airframe.
The C-UAS Hard Kill Challenge is open to teams consisting of private industry, government entities and government/industry challenge teams. The focus of this challenge is on technologies that can “hard kill” a UAS beyond 250 meters. Participation is at the teams’ own expense. During the challenge, teams will have the opportunity to “hard kill” a combined 30 rotor- and fixed-wing Group I UASs in scored events and four additional UASs in non-scored events.
For those teams that cannot afford to engage 34 UASs, JIDO will hold a demonstration phase where select teams can demonstrate their systems to the government stakeholders. Teams who only participate in the demonstration are not eligible to compete for the award.
Only a limited number of registrants will be selected to participate in the challenge and demonstration. A panel of subject matter experts, or SMEs, will review each team package to determine the most qualified candidates. The number of participants is limited due to logistical concerns at the range, cost of targets and range time.
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Source: Press Release