The order for the Common Sensor Payload Version 3, or CSP v3, is worth as much as $118 million and stems from a previous indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity arrangement, according to an announcement from the service’s Program Executive Office for Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors.

The sensor packages are typically fitted to MQ-1C Gray Eagle uncrewed aircraft. The General Atomics-made drone can carry multiple payloads, including synthetic aperture radar, communications relays and missiles.

The latest edition of sensing tech will feature “several enhancements over the previous version,” Dennis Teefy, project director for sensors-aerial intelligence at PEO IEW&S, said in a June 21 statement.

L3Harris, Raytheon chosen for next phase of Army aerial intel upgrades

“It will have an improved camera with short-wave infrared capabilities, which will enable better resolution in low-light scenarios,” he said. “It also addresses hardware obsolescence in the current CSP Version 2 to ensure sustainment can continue well into the future.”

RTX is the second largest defense contractor in the world when ranked by revenue, according to Defense News analysis.

The company rolled out its new three-letter moniker, matching its stock-market ticker, earlier this week. The rebrand coincided with news that Collins Aerospace, a subsidiary, would take control of about $2.7 billion in Joint All-Domain Command and Control work.

At the 2023 iteration of the Paris Air Show here, the company announced Romania as the latest customer of its Watchkeeper X system. The contract was signed as part of a framework agreement finalized in December, and it will see Elbit deliver three initial unmanned aerial systems by 2025, with the possibility to provide four additional ones later.

The drones will be an upgraded version of the Watchkeeper X, integrated with add-on capabilities, including the Spectro XR multi-spectral, electro-optical payload as well as new communications and radar features.

Speaking to Defense News, Amir Bettesh, vice president of UAS marketing and business development at Elbit, explained that as part of the framework agreement part of the production of the Watchkeepers will be carried out in Romania and involve local partners.

“We view this opportunity as a gate to selling our systems to other NATO countries, especially in Europe, where we are seeing an important increase in the demand” for drones of that size, he said.

The Watchkeeper X is a dual-payload drone that can be used to carry out intelligence and reconnaissance missions, providing maritime and land surveillance as well. It is the UK export variant of a British Army model, produced by a joint venture between Elbit and Thales UK, and based on the Israeli Hermes series.

The UK has faced a number of issues with the Watchkeeper X program, with government officials pointing out that in 2020 only 13 of the 45-strong drone fleet had flown that year. Prior to this, between 2017 and 2018, three of them crashed in different parts of the country.

When asked about these problems, the Elbit executive called them “common challenges” faced by the majority of countries operating aerial drones.

It was only a few weeks ago that Romania announced that it was acquiring TB2 drones from Turkish manufacturer Baykar, showing a willingness to diversify its suppliers.

Italian defense company Leonardo has been in the business of producing UAS for two decades, and today some sixty units of its Falco drones are in use worldwide. The company has in the past advertised its systems primarily for civilian operations as well as intelligence and surveillance-based missions. This has in part reflected a tendency that has existed in the broader Italian defense culture over time, which could somewhat be considered as a resistance or even taboo towards arming these types of systems.

This could be changing as Leonardo displayed its light medium-altitude long endurance, or MALE, drone, the Falco Xplorer, mounted with MBDA’s lightweight Brimstone missile at the Paris Air Show, going on this week. Although only one was visible, a company representative told Defense News that it could be fitted with a total of four missiles.

“MBDA and Leonardo are cooperating together on integrating Brimstone on the Falco Xplorer and are also currently doing joint integration studies and demonstrations,” the representative said.

The ambition is to have this variant available on the market for customers by 2025. It was not developed in response to a requirement issued specifically by the Italian Air Force, rather responding to a demand by other customers, they said.

The FALCO Xplorer has a maximum payload of 350 kilograms (772 lbs) and has an endurance of 24 hours.

Concerning potential sales, it is likely to peak the interest of existing Brimstone operators. Beyond the U.K., the missiles have in the past been sold to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Germany and most recently Ukraine for use as a surface-launched ground attack system. The Spanish Air Force also selected the weapon earlier this year to equip its fleet of Eurofighters.

While the majority of defense companies present at the Paris Air Show here are focused on furthering their aerospace ventures, the Israeli radar specialist has also been eyeing an expansion in the underwater market.

The firm announced its new partnership with Atlas, a subsidiary of Germany’s Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems, aimed at launching a joint product, the BlueWhale anti-submarine warfare (ASW) variant. The system is based on Elta’s autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), integrated with Atlas’ towed passive sonar triple array.

“The unique feature of this addition is that it allows the system to operate at depths generally used by submarines to avoid being detected by using a low-frequency sonar,” Yoav Tourgeman, chief executive officer of Elta Systems, told Defense News on the sidelines of the air show here.

He added that the widening set of possible applications for autonomous underwater systems, commercial or military, is part of what is driving the company to further explore their potential.

The BlueWhale ASW package features an advanced transmitter that allows for the bistatic detection and tracking of submarine targets.

Tourgeman confirmed to Defense News that the company was in talks with several customers interested in the system, but would not confirm whether one of those was Germany.

While the BlueWhale ASW could be of interest for the German Navy, some naval experts have expressed doubts regarding whether the country would be the launch customer based on current financial constraints.

“From a general standpoint, it would be interesting for them, especially based on the recently published German Navy objectives for 2035 and beyond, which places a strong emphasis on uncrewed systems in the underwater domain as a way to match increasing operational demands with scarce human resources,” Johannes Peters, head of the Center for Maritime Strategy and Security at the Institute for Security Policy at Kiel University, said.

However, he notes the multitude of large projects the country has ongoing in the naval sector, including the development of the new F-126 frigate, the U212-CD submarines and purchasing P-8 maritime patrol aircraft from Boeing.

“Given this backdrop, there is simply no budget for a short or medium term procurement – it is highly unlikely that the proclaimed first customer would be Germany,” Peters opined.

The Aarok is a medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) combat drone, designed and made in France by Turgis & Gaillard.

Its development began three years ago, although its capabilities were only disclosed for the first time over the last week. The system is envisioned to carry up to 6,000 lbs (3,000 kilograms) of payload and fly for up to 24 hours. It is powered by a PT6 turboprop engine from Pratt & Whitney Canada. According to the company, the Aarok is designed to carry out a wide range of missions, including strike operations, land and maritime surveillance and anti-submarine warfare.

Because of its reported capabilities and size, the Aarok has earned several comparisons by the French press to the U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone that the French military already operates. The newcomer is 3 feet larger than the American system, with a 72-foot wingspan, but their differences seemingly do not stop there.

“It is clear that the Reaper has created a tremendous benchmark you have to meet for entry into a very competitive market,” C. Mark Brinkley, senior director of strategic communications at General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI), told Defense News. “If you’re coming in 20 years later with your own version, you have to earn your experience.”

Brinkley added that it is too early to tell what the Aarok drone can actually do or how it performs, as it has not yet flown. The French company has said that it is hopeful that the system will fly for the first time before the end of this year. In contrast, the MQ-9A Reaper has already logged more than four million flying hours, according to the manufacturer.

Marketed as the first European MALE drone at the show, the Aarok was shown next to four AASM Hammer precision-guided munitions produced by Safran, which can be the drone’s armament.

The arrival of the prototype has raised many questions regarding how it hopes to coexist with the multinational Eurodrone project. Last year, France re-stated its intention to acquire a total of six systems, four of which have already been ordered. The goal is that the French Eurodrones will gradually replace the Reapers currently in operation within the military and set to be retired after 2030.

Turgis & Gaillard declined to comment on which customers it hopes to sell the Aarok to.

The Eurodrone initiative has faced considerable delays over the years and is currently not supposed to enter into service before 2030. When contacted, an Airbus official said that there was no comment from their side on the Aarok at this time.

As for GA-ASI, Brinkley said that while the company sees new competition as a source of innovation and welcomes it, the company nonetheless “owns this category of platforms and isn’t going anywhere.”

The French Defense Innovation Agency – an agency similar to the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) – signed a contract with Nexter on June 16 to build a new medium-range, remotely operated munition under the “Larinae” project, which was launched in early May. Larinae is Latin for seagull.

Nexter and its partners’ proposed solution includes an unmanned aerial system (UAS) manufactured by French vendor EOS Technologie, along with core-generating charge technology produced by Nexter, and a GPS-independent navigation system capable of operating in contested environments from startup TRAAK. It’s intended to have a range of at least 80 kilometers (nearly 50 miles) and to remain autonomous for three hours.

The French defense ministry declined to give a price tag for the project.

Nexter – which is part of the European land defense systems group KNDS alongside Germany’s Krauss-Maffei Wegmann – touted the munition’s proposed ability to “thwart” active defenses of armored vehicles before piercing their armor. It will also contain an optronic ball capable of detecting vehicles 15 kilometers away by day, three kilometers by night, and which allows operators to observe terrain from afar.

The French Armed Forces have put a premium on developing a low-cost unmanned solution that can target and neutralize an armored vehicle between 5 and 50 kilometers away. Larinae focuses on the higher end of that distance, and a second project, “Colibri” – or Hummingbird – focuses on the lower end.

Loitering munitions have received renewed attention from militaries since being used by both Azerbaijan and Armenia in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in 2020, and for their use by Ukraine in their ongoing defense against Russian forces.

France first announced an interest in procuring U.S.-built loitering munitions in 2022 as a transitional capability while the Larinae and Colibri projects move forward. This past April, U.S. unmanned systems manufacturer Aerovironment announced it had received a $64 million contract to provide its Switchblade 300 drone to the U.S. Army, and that the contract included foreign military sales for the capability to France “for the first time,” as well as to “another allied nation.” Those drones are scheduled to be delivered in 2024. Aerovironment has supplied the Switchblade 300 to the U.S. Army for over a decade.

The French government’s proposed military budget for the 2024-2030 period includes €5 billion ($5.5 billion) for unmanned systems. The budget is currently being deliberated by the French Senate, and has already been passed by the government’s lower body, the General Assembly.

MILAN — Portuguese drone manufacturer Tekever has told Defense News it will provide some of its long-endurance systems to Kyiv to support land and maritime operations, a move bankrolled by the United Kingdom’s International Fund for Ukraine.

Earlier this month, the British Defence Ministry shared a video on social media showcasing military equipment being provided by the IFU account to Ukrainian troops. Launched last summer, the first IFU deliveries — funded by Denmark, Iceland, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands and the U.K. — will begin to arrive in July.

The International Fund for Ukraine is supplying critical capabilities for Ukraine, with deliveries from the first procurement round due next month.

Yesterday we announced a £92m air defence package, to be provided through the second procurement round: https://t.co/wipYETa8Ur pic.twitter.com/XOvX1yJ1qa

— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) June 14, 2023

Open-source intelligence analysts were quick to identify what appears to be Malloy T150 quadcopters manufactured by the British company Malloy Aeronautics, the DeltaQuad Pro VTOL drone produced by Dutch firm DeltaQuad, and the Astero ISR system from Denmark’s Nordic Wing. Two other unspecified drone models can be seen in the footage, with one shown taking off vertically and launched via catapult.

The British Defence Ministry declined to comment on specific platforms in the video.

Defense News can, however, confirm that one of the two unidentified drones is the Tekever AR3 Vertical Takeoff and Landing system, manufactured by the Lisbon-based firm Tekever.

“Yes, our Tekever AR3 system is depicted in the video produced by the UK MoD,” a company representative told Defense News. “It includes images of the drone being deployed with support of a catapult — which we can use for extended endurance operations up to 16 hours — and in an optional VTOL configuration. Each operator can easily choose which variant it wants to use for a specific mission.”

Tekever’s CEO and founder, Ricardo Mendes, added that the company is “very proud to support Ukraine and thankful to the UK MoD and IFU for allowing us to contribute to one of the most important causes of our lifetime.”

The AR3 is a small, long-endurance drone designed to provide wide-area surveillance for both land and maritime missions. It has a maximum payload capacity of 4 kilograms (9 pounds), can fly at a cruise speed of 75-90 kph (47-56 mph) and can also be recovered via parachute.

Some of the military operators of the AR3 include Portugal, the UK, and Nigeria. Hence, its label in the footage, NAF 167 (an acronym used for the Nigerian Air Force), raised the question as to where the drones were purchased from.

“I can confirm that Nigeria purchased a number of the Tekever AR3 platforms from Tekever Ltd. of Portugal. However, all the drones acquired are currently operating in Nigeria — none have been donated in any way or form to Ukraine or any other country,” Maj. MS Muhammad, deputy defense adviser to the Nigeria High Commission in the U.K., told Defense News.

He added that the drone shown in the video with the NAF 167 label, which does indeed stand for Nigerian Air Force, “must have been provided by the manufacturer, or the clip used in the said tweet might have come from the company’s promotional videos, as the model with that particular number is presently in use in Nigeria.”

It is important to note that the individual platforms showcased in the video are not necessarily the final ones that Ukraine will receive, but rather were provided by industry partners to display some capabilities provided as part of the first $212 million defense package announced in February.

The second IFU procurement, referred to as Urgent Bidding Round 2, launched on April 11. The first capability package resulting from that second round was announced earlier this week and will include a $188 million air defense package. Capabilities requested include sensors to detect and track cruise missiles, low-flying drones and/or ballistic missiles, air burst rounds for cannon-based air defense systems, and sensor-guided air defense cannons to defeat low-flying drones and cruise missiles.

Johan Hjelmstrand, a press officer for Sweden’s defense minister, noted much of the IFU account is unspent, and that some companies either do not go public with related contracts or that not all contracts are yet signed, but that “more packages are on the way.”

In terms of how the fund operates, Martynas Bendikas, a strategic adviser with the Lithuanian Defence Ministry’s public affairs team, explained that defense ministries contribute only with financial resources. Following this, an international public tender is organized for specific military equipment, and all seven countries’ companies can participate.

“However, so far, Lithuanian drones are being sent to Ukraine in other formats,” she said.

Federal spending caps for fiscal 2024 and fiscal 2025 forced the House Armed Services Committee to agree to retire aging ships and aircraft they may have otherwise fought to keep a little while longer, Rep Rob Wittman told Defense News.

But, he warned, “there’s probably going to be some gap” between when old platforms like the Air Force’s A-10s and the Navy’s cruisers retire, and when the services can fully rebuild their inventory.

“I think it really calls to the forefront the issue of using other smaller, less expensive, attritable platforms as the gap-filler,” Wittman, R-Va., said in a June 14 interview in his Capitol Hill office.

“Those things can be very, very capable, and these are platforms that are already out there that could go to production tomorrow. So unmanned surface vessels, unmanned underwater vessels — the Navy really has to push the gas pedal on this and say: ‘OK, how do we get these platforms integrated?’ ” added Wittman, who chairs the committee’s tactical air and land forces panel and also sits on its sea power and projection forces subcommittee.

Though Congress has questioned some of the Navy’s experimentation and acquisition efforts following expensive mistakes with the Littoral Combat Ship program, among others, Wittman said now is an appropriate time to take more risk in pursuing unmanned surface and subsurface vessels at a quicker pace.

The Navy has largely eyed programs of record based on the size of the platform: it’s aiming to award a contract for the Large Unmanned Surface Vessel’s design and construction in FY25, and a Medium USV would likely follow a few years behind. The Orca Extra Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicle program is running several years behind in the construction and testing of five prototype vehicles, but the Navy expects to see a version operating overseas by FY26.

Wittman said the Navy could potentially move faster if it focused on mission rather than size, which is more in line with the experimentation happening in the Middle East under Task Force 59.

“They need to go out there and say, ‘Listen, we believe this platform will do a great job as an addition to a carrier strike group, or as an addition to an [amphibious ready group], or destroyer squadron, or Virginia-class [attack submarine], or Ohio-class [ballistic missile submarine],’ and then buy a relative number that you can test very vigorously” for 12-18 months, and then either modify them or move into serial production, he said.

“The good news is, these things are at a price point where you can afford to take some risks. You can afford to have platforms that you look at and go: ‘Gosh, looked like it was going to work out, but it just didn’t,’ ” he added.

He’d also prefer the Navy have unmanned surface vehicles that can only perform surveillance missions, others solely meant for electronic warfare and more that only shoot weapons, he said, versus spent too much money and too much time trying to pursue a platform that can do it all.

“I just want the Navy to look at those things, and I think they can do that speed of relevance. That’s going to be the gap-filler because our exquisite platforms — aircraft carriers, our surface ships, our submarines — all great platforms, but it takes years and years and years to get them in the inventory. So even with the best of intentions, we’re not going to have that capability” in time for when China might attack Taiwan.

What about the Air Force?

The Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee included language in its section of the FY24 National Defense Authorization Act setting cost limits for collaborative combat aircraft plans, which would see a drone serve as a wingman for crewed jets, such as the future Next Generation Air Dominance fighter.

Wittman said this is a preemptive measure, and not because he has concerns about collaborative combat aircraft. In fact, he explained, he is “very comfortable” with what he’s seen, including several vendors with many options that come in at a good cost point.

He also said he’s optimistic about the way the competition is looking at this early stage, but wants to avoid requirements and therefore cost ballooning.

“We’ve seen that too many times with programs where we’re chasing requirements, we’re chasing technology, and you never catch it. And then all of the sudden we see platforms that started out as [an] X-million-dollar platform [that] are now three or four times the cost,” he noted.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall wants the collaborative combat aircraft, or CCA, to be cheap enough that, in some cases, the service can afford to lose some in combat. A drone wingman that could be sacrificed might not need as many protective subsystems, which could help keep down costs, Kendall said at the September 2022 Defense News conference.

The service considers CCAs a way to deliver combat capability at a lower price point and to move away from recent spiraling costs of fighters and bombers.

For his part, Wittman considers these drones important in light of the retirements of legacy Air Force planes and a dip in inventory in the short term. He connected CCA efforts to another program, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, for which the NDAA proposes creating a formal “major subprogram” to focus on the continuous development and delivery of new F-35 capabilities, and designating six aircraft as permanent test assets for this work.

Wittman said the focus of these efforts is to address ongoing software issues as well as engine power and cooling challenges today, and prepare to quickly address challenges in the coming decades.

“Along with partners, there’s going to be 3,300 of these aircraft out there. What we don’t want is all of a sudden for somebody to come back in 10 years and go: ‘Oh, sorry, the whole fleet’s antiquated,’ ” he said. “So let’s do some rigorous testing and evaluation, figure out how do we make sure this platform gets maximum utility. And I think there are a lot of ways that they can do that — and especially if you combine this platform with combat collaborative aircraft, and you combine it with E-7s, which has to happen — all of a sudden this aircraft is a pretty significant gap-filler until you get to endgame.”

“But you don’t have its full potential unless you rigorously test what the challenges are with the aircraft. And that’s on every element of the platform, from the avionics to the software to the engine systems to the power and cooling,” he added, noting the designation of the major subprogram would signal the seriousness of this effort to the Pentagon and congressional appropriators.

Even with budget caps in place, Wittman said the Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee is trying to make these adjustments.

“We are making smart investments in the FY24 NDAA by reprioritizing and reallocating funding requested for Air Force and Navy NGAD programs,” he said, noting his subcommittee is making investments in CCA refueling technology maturation and risk reduction within the Air Force’s research and development budget, in the Adaptive Engine Transition Program that would replace the current F-35 engine, and in F-15 procurement and E-7 advance procurement.

Epirus, a U.S. company specializing in directed energy, and DroneShield, an Australian firm involved with electronic warfare, on June 15 announced the successful marriage of the former’s Leonidas high-power microwave kit and the latter’s sensing-and-jamming DroneSentry.

Together, they provide “significantly expanded options” for the U.S. Department of Defense and other customers, DroneShield CEO Oleg Vornik said in a statement. “Additionally, there are synergies on the business development front, which DroneShield and Epirus are already working on.”

‘Smaller, better and cheaper’: The rise of portable drone interceptors

Epirus in November invested roughly $2.5 million into DroneShield.

Military adoption and deployment of drones has ballooned, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine again pushing their use into the public eye. The proliferation of overhead threats is motivating the Pentagon to rethink its battlefield defenses. High-power microwave systems use bursts of energy to disrupt or destroy distant electronics.

Epirus this year won a $66 million Army prototyping contract handled by the Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office, which serves as a bridge between the science-and-technology community and program executive offices. With the Leonidas equipment, the company is focusing on the service’s indirect fire protection capability, meant to negate rockets, artillery, mortars, missiles and more.

A Leonidas array was previously joined with a Stryker combat vehicle, in partnership with General Dynamics Land Systems, and used to roast both individual drones and collective swarms. The “Stryker Leonidas,” developed in less than one year, was on display at the 2022 Association of the U.S. Army convention.

The provision in the FY24 National Defense Authorization Act would require both the Navy and Air Force secretaries to submit alongside their annual budget requests “development and technology maturation progress reports” for the Next Generation Air Dominance program and the complementary effort for collaborative combat aircraft.

NGAD is a sixth-generation fighter program that would pair with unmanned aircraft, including the CCA acting as a so-called loyal wingman.

Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., who chairs the House Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces, told Defense News that “the Navy needs to speed that up, so that’s why we want to report on what they’re doing.”

The Air Force is juggling several technology development efforts in parallel, including work on advanced engines and a next-generation tanker to give the NGAD fighter additional range in highly contested environments. Wittman said he wants to ensure one technology doesn’t fall behind, and potentially lead to bad decisions for other components.

If the various technology development efforts are properly aligned, “we can either deliver on time or deliver to the left,” or ahead of schedule, he explained.

One nightmare scenario, he said, is that the aircraft’s development gets ahead of engine development, and the Air Force eventually realizes it made a bad decision that would have been avoided if the engine had matured faster.

“We want to see all those things happen in a sequence where one takes advantage of the other … so we’re making maximum use of resources,” Wittman said of the annual reporting requirement.

Asked about the gap between the Navy’s and the Air Force’s progress on NGAD, Wittman said the Navy must set its requirements beyond simply seeking a carrier-based fighter.

The Air Force about five years ago realized its fifth-generation fighters were at risk from Chinese weapons within the first island chain, Wittman noted. (The first island chain runs parallel to the mainland of the Asian continent, starting in the Kuril Islands, through the Japanese Archipelago; includes Taiwan and the northwestern portion of the Philippines; and finishes in Borneo.)

The Navy, he added, at first believed it could mitigate the threat by keeping its aircraft carriers farther away and sending its fifth-generation F-35Cs in along with tankers to increase their range. But, Wittman continued, the jets and the tankers are still at risk, and so this sixth-generation NGAD program is important to the sea service.

“The Navy is behind, and I don’t want the Air Force to mark time while the Navy’s trying to catch up,” Wittman said.

“But I do think the things that the Air Force is doing will inform the Navy, and the Navy should, with that, be able to make big steps forward that they otherwise couldn’t make if they were doing this on their own. So what our expectation is, is the Navy can do a significant amount of catch-up, based upon what the Air Force is doing.”

The Bayraktar TB2 can carry lightweight, laser-guided bombs and fly for up to 27 hours at a time, which, according to the company, was “a record” it had set while testing the drone in Kuwait in 2019.

Tuesday’s announcement would set Kuwait to become the 28th country to procure the TB2 drones.

Demand for the drones has surged due to their successful deployment in conflict zones such as Libya, Syria and Ukraine.

Kuwaiti Air Force operations chief brigadier, Gen. Fahad Al-Dosari, said in a video posted on Twitter that the drone fleet can support the naval and coast guard forces, as well as monitor maritime and land borders. He said the drones can also “carry out reconnaissance and targeted missions” in addition to supporting search and rescue efforts.

Baykar and the Kuwaiti government did not say how many drones were purchased or when they would be delivered. Both could not be immediately reached for comment.

The drones — priced under $2 million each according to estimates — are produced by the defense company Baykar, which belongs to the family of Selcuk Bayraktar, the son-in-law of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Bayraktar is the company’s chief technical officer.

The TB2 has been credited with helping tip the balance of conflicts in Libya, as well as to Turkey’s ally Azerbaijan in fighting with Armenian-backed forces in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region in 2020.

It has also enabled Ukraine to mount a stiff defense of its cities, carrying out attacks against Russian forces with an effectiveness that surprised many Western military experts and triggered a rush among nations to procure the unmanned craft.

A private Lithuanian crowdfunding campaign, inspired by the drone’s effectiveness in battle, rallied ordinary citizens and raised nearly €6 million (U.S. $6.5 million) to purchase a TB2 for Ukraine.

The drone contract between Baykar and Kuwait, struck through direct negotiations between the Turkish and Kuwaiti governments, also includes weapons provisioning, electronic warfare and mobile ground control facilities compatible with NATO standards, according to Kuwaiti state media.

Kuwait, considered a major non-NATO ally, and the U.S. have had a close military partnership since America launched the 1991 Gulf War to expel Iraqi troops after Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded the country. The country hosts the U.S. Army Central’s forward headquarters and some 13,500 American troops.

Inside the 2024 budget request is more than $200 million to purchase the systems and fund upgrades to make them even more formidable against aerial targets.

The operational debut of MADIS came in July 2019, when its light version, or L-MADIS, mounted on a variant of the Polaris MRZR all-terrain vehicle shot down an Iranian drone while deployed aboard the amphibious assault ship Boxer.

The mission, which came about a month after Iran downed an expensive U.S. Air Force RQ-4 Global Hawk, showcased the transportability and effectiveness of the MADIS family of systems.

Prototype air defense interceptor for Marine Corps wraps up last test

With air defense identified as a focus area in Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger’s Force Design 2030, and the MADIS family of systems specifically called out as a priority, the Marine Corps is substantially ready to invest in the technology.

The requested funding for fiscal 2024 will include $130.2 million, or about $10 million apiece, to buy 13 MADIS Increment 1 systems, to be mounted on top of joint light tactical vehicles; $24.6 million to retrofit seven previously procured systems with existing technology; and another $12.5 million for training and logistics.

Another $8 million is dedicated to procuring engineering change orders “required to ensure increased lethality against evolving threats,” according to a budget justification document.

The document adds that the MADIS Increment 1 Block 2 upgrade, which will start the acquisition process by fall, “will focus on kinetic and non-kinetic capability supporting increased lethality.”

In 2022, the Marine Corps held an industry day focused on the same goal: building capabilities into the next version of MADIS that will enable it to be lethal against more, and larger, drones.

Program Manager Ground-Based Air Defense “intends to acquire solutions from vendors that are capable of providing a Group 1 and 2, with potential for 3, (counter-unmanned aerial system) defeat capability via an effector,” an event notice stated. “The effector would increase the range of C-UAS defeat capability to augment the current defeat mechanisms.”

As defined by the U.S. military, Group 1 and 2 unmanned aerial systems weigh up to 55 pounds, operate at altitudes up to 3,500 feet, and travel at speeds of 100 miles per hours or more. Group 1 unmanned aerial systems include the hand-launched and remote-controlled RQ-11 surveillance drone, for example; Group 2 includes the catapult-launched, long endurance ScanEagle.

Group 3 is an order of magnitude greater in size and capability; it includes drones weighing up to 1,320 pounds and capable of operating at 18,000 feet of altitude and at nearly 300 miles per hour. One Group 3 platform is the Aerovironment T-20, a catapult-launched drone that can stay airborne for up to 24 hours.

Making MADIS effective against a greater range of unmanned aircraft would make it more formidable and more versatile, particularly in a deployed environment.

A request for proposals “will be released prior to the end of the current fiscal year for the MADIS Block 2 effort that will be seeking industry solutions to meet a full range of defeat technologies to counter the UAS threat,” Barbara Hamby, a spokeswoman for Program Executive Office Land Systems, told Marine Corps Times in an email.

The Block 1 JLTV-mounted MADIS system comes in two variants. Mk1, for airborne threats, includes turret-launched and shoulder-fired Stinger missiles for mounted and dismounted ops, multifunctional electronic warfare capability and an electro-optical infrared optic. The MK2, specialized for drone-killing, includes multi-functional electronic warfare, 360-degree radar, and a command-and-control communications suite.

“The high-powered tactical and electronic technologies of MADIS Inc 1.0 gives indispensable advantages to low altitude air defense battalions conducting fire and maneuver missions within the weapons engagement zone,” Hamby said. “The MADIS Mk1 and Mk2 form a complementary pair and will be the basic building block of the LAAD Battalions’ ground-based air defense capability.”

L-MADIS, which is small enough to be transported in a sling below an H-53 helicopter, also comes as a two-vehicle set. The Mk-1 variant can transmit and receive data from air and ground platforms, while the Mk-2 adds target detection, tracking, and friend-or-foe identification, according to budget documents.

Easily deployable aboard ships, these systems will provide an added layer of defense for Marine expeditionary units at sea.

The 2024 budget request includes $32.5 million for L-MADIS procurement, including $23 million for five L-MADIS systems and the remainder for logistics, labor and training.

Prior to fielding, several MADIS and L-MADIS systems already are operating in the fleet.

An L-MADIS vehicle deployed aboard the amphibious assault ship Bataan with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit is currently the only counter-unmanned aerial system on the East Coast organic to the Marine Corps, according to releases. In January, the system was secured on the flight deck to track a simulated adversary vessel in the Atlantic.

In November 2022, the Marine Corps activated Charlie Battery, 3rd Low Altitude Air Defense Battalion, out of Camp Pendleton, California, underscoring the substantial role ground-based air defense will play in the ongoing force modernization effort amid greater ubiquity and variety of threats from above.

The battery’s core equipment will include MADIS, as well as Stinger missiles to neutralize the airborne threats it detects.

The new and soon-to-be-equipped unit represented “is another piece to the pie of modernizing the force to meet future threats,” Maj. Crispus M. Kimani, operations officer for 3rd Low Altitude Air Defense battalions Battalion, said in a release.

Russia has built heavily fortified defenses along the 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line, honed its electronic weapons to reduce Ukraine’s edge in combat drones, and turned heavy bombs from its massive Cold-War-era arsenal into precision-guided gliding munitions capable of striking targets without putting its warplanes at risk.

The changing Russian tactics along with increased troop numbers and improved weaponry could make it challenging for Ukraine to score any kind of quick decisive victory, threatening to turn it into a long battle of attrition.

U.S. Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Mark Milley said in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday that while Ukraine’s military is well-prepared, as time goes on, “this will be a back-and-forth fight for a considerable length of time.”

Most attention last week focused on catastrophic flooding in southern Ukraine caused by the destruction of the Kakhovka dam that both sides blame on each other.

At the same time, however, Ukrainian troops have unleashed a series of attacks in several parts of the front that so far have made only marginal gains against multilayered Russian defenses.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that counteroffensive and defensive actions are underway against Russian forces, asserting that his commanders are in a “positive” mindset about its success. Ukrainian authorities have stopped short of announcing the start of a full-blown counteroffensive.

A day earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that it had begun, but that Ukraine failed to make any headway and suffered “significant” losses.

Sir Richard Barrons, a retired general who led the U.K. Joint Forces Command, said the Russian military has built “textbook” defensive lines and adjusted its tactics following its hasty retreat from wide swaths of the Kharkiv and Kherson regions last fall under the brunt of a swift Ukrainian campaign.

He pointed at the improved Russian ability to both counter and use drones and also noted that Moscow has learned to keep key assets like command headquarters and ammunition dumps out of artillery range.

“And they have sharpened up how they can fire at Ukrainian artillery and tanks when they spot them,” he told AP. “So if you add all that together, everybody knows this will be a harder fight than for Kherson or Kharkiv in the autumn of last year.

“People are still using those two successes, and they were successes, as benchmarks, which I think is unfair, unreasonable in the circumstances,” he said.

Russia has fielded more troops to protect the long front line, even though many of them could be poorly trained, he said.

At the start of the war, Russian military convoys stretched for miles to become easy prey for Ukrainian artillery and drones during a failed attempt to capture Kyiv, in what was seen as a major blunder.

Ukrainian missiles then sank the Russian cruiser Moskva, the flagship of its Black Sea Fleet, in a major blow to Moscow’s pride; Kyiv’s rockets pummeled Russian ammunition depots and command headquarters; and Kremlin forces hastily pulled back from large areas in the east and the south in the fall.

Despite those setbacks, Russia dug in to defend broad parts of Ukrainian territory it captured early in the invasion. Last month, it claimed control of the eastern city of Bakhmut after the war’s longest and bloodiest battle.

Fundamental Russian weaknesses remain.

Russian troops continue to suffer from low morale, there are shortages of ammunition, and coordination between units has remained poor. Vicious infighting has erupted between the military brass and the Wagner private military contractor, which has fielded tens of thousands of mercenaries to the battlefield to spearhead the battle for Bakhmut.

A major factor still limiting Russia’s capability has been its decision to keep its air force from forging deep into Ukraine after it suffered heavy losses in the war’s initial stages. Its attempts to knock out Ukraine’s air defenses have failed. Thanks to supplies of Western weaponry, Ukraine now poses an even more formidable challenge to Russian aircraft.

Barrons emphasized it’s essential for military leaders in Kyiv to continue keeping its adversary’s warplanes at bay so that “the counteroffensive isn’t the moment the Russian air force suddenly finds its capability and courage and romps ... all over Ukraine.”

Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov notes that Moscow has maintained a numerical advantage in troops and weapons, despite any weaknesses.

While Russia has increasingly tapped its Cold-War arsenals, deploying tanks dating to the 1950s to replenish its massive, early losses, such old weapons can still perform well, Zhdanov said.

“It doesn’t matter what tanks they have; they have thousands of them,” Zhdanov told AP, noting Russia put many of them to use as stationary weapons in their defensive lines, including in the Zaporizhzhia region where they proved effective.

He acknowledged Russian success in hitting Ukrainian military depots. relying on Moscow’s agents and collaborators, but said such losses were “tolerable.” He also said the Russians increasingly use drones and improved electronic warfare to jam those from Ukraine.

Russia has stopped using battalion-sized tactical groups it deployed early in the war and shifted to smaller units, Zhdanov said.

While the Russian air force has operated in relatively small numbers, it has modernized its stock of bombs to turn them into gliding weapons that have proven efficient, he said. The 500-kilogram (1,100-pound) bombs adapted with a GPS module can inflict massive damage.

“The Soviet Union produced those bombs in uncountable numbers,” Zhdanov said, adding that the Russians drop up to 50 a day for a “major psychological effect.”

One such bomb accidentally released over the Russian city of Belgorod near the border with Ukraine in April blasted a huge crater and slightly injured one person.

Russian military bloggers hailed the punch of the gliding bombs and their ability to hit targets up to 70 kilometers (over 43 miles) away. One former military pilot said in his blog that work is under way to convert 1,500-kilogram (3,300-pound) bombs into gliding munitions.

These conversions allow the Russian air force to ramp up strikes on Ukrainian forces without risking its warplanes.

The Royal United Service Institute, a London-based think-tank that focuses on defense and security issues, listed these gliding bombs along with other improvements in Russian weapons and tactics.

“Although they only have limited accuracy, the size of these munitions poses a serious threat,” RUSI said in a recent report, adding Russia was working to improve their accuracy.

Russian engineers have shown prowess in building field fortifications and complex obstacles along the front line, including concrete-reinforced trenches and command bunkers, wire-entanglements, ditches, anti-tank hedgehogs or “dragon’s teeth” and complex minefields, the report said.

Extensive placement of sophisticated mines for use against tanks and infantry poses “a major tactical challenge to Ukrainian offensive operations,” the RUSI authors said.

Other Russian improvements noted in the report include better thermal camouflage for tanks; nimbler deployment of artillery into multiple positions, including integration with drones to avoid losses; and attacking Ukrainian artillery with loitering munitions — drones that hover until they acquire a target.

Such responsive Russian fire represents “the greatest challenge to Ukrainian offensive operations,” the RUSI report said.

Improved Russian electronic warfare systems have destroyed about 10,000 Ukrainian drones a month, while they also have been able to intercept and decrypt Ukrainian tactical communications in real time, it added.

They also have learned to intercept GPS-guided rockets fired by Western-supplied launchers like the U.S.-made HIMARS, which embarrassed the Russians and inflicted major damage, the report said.

Russia’s military “is able to improve and evolve its employment of key systems,” RUSI said, but noted it could struggle to respond to similar quick adjustments by Kyiv that could make Moscow’s units “likely to rapidly lose their coordination.”

Associated Press writers Danica Kirka in London, Tara Copp in Normandy, France, and Yuras Karmanau in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that U.S. intelligence officials believe a plant in Russia’s Alabuga special economic zone could be operational early next year. The White House also released satellite imagery taken in April of the industrial location, several hundred miles east of Moscow, where it believes the plant “will probably be built.”

President Joe Biden’s administration publicly stated in December that it believed Tehran and Moscow were considering standing up a drone assembly line in Russia for the Ukraine war. The new intelligence suggests that the project, in the Yelabuga region of Tatarstan, has moved beyond conception.

Iran has said it provided drones to Russia before the start of the war but not since.

Kirby said that U.S. officials also have determined that Iran continues to supply the Russian military with one-way attack drones made in Iran: The drones are shipped via the Caspian Sea, from Amirabad in Iran to Makhachkala, Russia, and then are used by Russian forces against Ukraine.

As of May, Russia had received hundreds of one-way attack drones, as well as drone production-related equipment, from Iran, according to the White House.

“This is a full-scale defense partnership that is harmful to Ukraine, to Iran’s neighbors, and to the international community,” Kirby said. “We are continuing to use all the tools at our disposal to expose and disrupt these activities including by sharing this with the public — and we are prepared to do more.”

Kirby said the Democratic administration on Friday would announce a new advisory meant to help businesses and other governments put in place measures to ensure they are not inadvertently contributing to Iran’s drone program. The United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom in recent months all have issued rules designed to cut off the flow of drone components to Russia and Iran.

The Biden administration has repeatedly publicized intelligence findings that detail how Iran is assisting the Russian invasion.

The persistent drip of intelligence findings from the administration is intended to detail what U.S. officials say is a deepening defense partnership between Russia and Iran. It’s also part of a broader administration effort to spotlight Moscow’s prosecution of its war in Ukraine in hopes of further promoting global isolation of Russia.

The White House last month said Russia was looking to buy additional advanced attack drones from Iran after using up most of the 400 drones it had previously purchased from Tehran.

The Biden administration last year first publicized satellite imagery and intelligence findings that it said indicated Iran sold hundreds of attack drones to Russia. For months, officials have said the United States believed Iran was considering selling hundreds of ballistic missiles to Russia, but White House officials have said they do not have evidence a deal was consummated.

The White House has noted that Iran also has weapons flowing its way from Russia.

Iran is seeking to purchase additional military equipment from Russia, including attack helicopters, radars and YAK-130 combat trainer aircraft, according to the White House. In April, Iran announced that it had finalized a deal to buy Su-35 fighter jets from Russia.

The latest infusion of funding, one of the larger packages the U.S. has provided, comes as there are signs that Ukraine is beginning — or about to begin — the much anticipated counteroffensive to try to take back territory that has been seized by Russia.

Unlike the U.S. equipment, weapons and ammunition that are more frequently sent from Pentagon stocks and delivered quickly to Ukraine, this money would be provided under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative and is meant to be spent over the coming months or even years to ensure Ukraine’s future security needs.

In a statement, the Pentagon said the package shows America’s continued commitment “to both Ukraine’s critical near-term capabilities as well as the enduring capacity of Ukraine’s Armed Forces to defend its territory and deter Russian aggression over the long term.”

The aid also will include munitions for laser-guided rockets, an undisclosed amount of artillery rounds, and funding for training and maintenance support.

A number of administration officials have acknowledged that the fighting in Ukraine has intensified in recent days, but much of the focus turned early this week to the collapse of the Kakhovka dam on the Dnieper River. The White House and the Pentagon insisted Thursday they are still working to determine who caused the damage, which set off a scramble to evacuate residents in dozens of flooded areas and get aid to those still there.

Although the U.S. has been willing to provide billions of dollars in military weapons and other aid, the Biden administration has been clear that there will be no U.S. combat forces inside Ukraine. In that vein, Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said Thursday the military had no plans to directly provide transportation or other support to the areas damaged by the dam collapse.

The Biden administration has provided more than $37.6 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022.

The update comes as the service and the Pentagon grapple with what future warfare might require of American forces.

In its annual update on June 5 — part of the Corps’ ongoing Force Design 2030 modernization push — the service laid out two parallel efforts: a 21st Century Amphibious Operations concept the Corps is studying with the Navy; and an ARG/MEU Next concept, which refers to the amphibious ready group/Marine expeditionary unit pairing of ships and embarked forces.

The 21st Century Amphibious Operations concept would “articulate the future role of amphibious operations in support of maritime campaigns and will describe new operating methods that incorporate agile platforms to supplement traditional amphibious ships,” according to the Force Design update.

Examples given include long-range, unmanned systems that can infiltrate an enemy’s weapon-engagement zone, manned-unmanned fleets, and other “disruptive technologies.”

This concept looks into the 2040s and considers how Marines might conduct amphibious operations.

One new facet of amphibious operations could involve military vessels serving as motherships to unmanned systems that operate in several domains of warfare.

Col. Daniel Wittnam, the director of the service’s Integration Division, told Defense News in a recent interview that the commandant of the Marine Corps is interested in putting anything unmanned or autonomous onto amphibious ships for experimentation.

“The mothership concept is another opportunity for the Marine Corps to show flexibility and to be able to show resiliency by looking at manned and unmanned teaming and different platforms to utilize new and emerging technologies with our ARG/MEU teams,” Wittnam said.

He said the service already had funding to deploy the Shield AI-made V-BAT unmanned aerial vehicle on amphibious ships, and that the first Long-Range Unmanned Surface Vessel prototype would in the coming months move from Virginia to California to begin a user evaluation, which will include operations with a Marine expeditionary unit at sea.

This concept study will focus on how amphibious forces will fight, and not weigh in on how many ships the Corps needs the Navy to buy and maintain.

Still, even as the service takes a longer-term look at this piece of its portfolio, there is significant uncertainty hanging over its head about these operations today.

The Marine Corps, the Navy and the Office of the Secretary of Defense have differing views on the role of amphibious operations in today’s joint force, and therefore how much money to spend on upkeeping existing ships and building replacements.

Congress attempted to partly settle the dispute by putting a 31-ship-fleet minimum into law, but the current long-range shipbuilding plan of record falls short of that mandate. Furthermore, the Pentagon has shown no sign of support for additional shipbuilding spending that would be needed to sustain a 31-ship fleet.

Despite multiple studies in recent years on the required size of the amphibious fleet, yet another study is nearing its conclusion and will look at ships’ design, acquisition and construction processes, eyeing opportunities to decrease the cost of the fleet.

The Marine Corps has pushed back on this idea, with Lt. Gen. Karsten Heckl, the deputy commandant for combat development and integration, telling Defense News this year that rough drawings from the Pentagon would reduce the capability of the ships in a way the service finds unacceptable.

The study is due to the Pentagon’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation office imminently. It is unclear what will happen once the office receives the Marine Corps’ and the Navy’s input, as leadership has only said the study will inform the fiscal 2025 budget process.

“I’m very pessimistic,” Heckl said during the recent interview about his near-term outlook on the amphibious fleet’s size and readiness. “Until amphibs genuinely become a priority, this will always be a struggle — to procure and then maintain. The fact that these vessels have been ridden hard and put away wet simply exemplifies how useable they are: They are in constant demand.”

He recommended the Defense Department reconsider how ships are funded. Currently, only the Navy can buy those vessels in its shipbuilding account, and only the Navy can maintain them within its operations and maintenance account, even though Marines are the primary beneficiaries of the ships.

Fleet combinations

As something of a hedge against the projected shortfall of amphibious ships, the Marines’ Force Design update also references a look at the ARG/MEU team’s composition.

As part of the ARG/MEU Next effort, the Corps is eyeing different ship configurations — including existing Navy expeditionary ships and potential “lower cost alternatives” to supplement amphibs — that could keep Marines afloat around the globe.

In the future, the Navy and Marine Corps could use a greater number of smaller and less expensive ships to “complicate the ability of our adversaries to find and target our sea-based expeditionary forces,” according to the Force Design update document.

Wittnam said that earlier in his career there were three ARG/MEU teams at sea routinely. But today, it’s difficult to keep two — or even one — at sea.

Marines need new ideas to address mobility, or their ability to move around independently of joint force assets, which Wittnam called a top concern heading into the next year of Force Design experimentation.

Despite Heckl’s concerns about today’s ARG/MEU team and the ability to strengthen the fleet in the coming years, the general did say Marines “are going to do what we’ve always done, what quite frankly we do really, really well: We’re going to fight for every damn penny we can get with Congress, and we don’t care who gets hurt along the way because we’re doing it to have what our nation needs.”

The nine-month study will allow Naval Group to examine principal use cases and develop system architectures for an Unmanned Combat Underwater Vehicle, or UCUV. Its missions would include intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), with the idea of helping the French military “master” the seabed, according to Naval Group.

The Armed Forces Ministry’s procurement office, the Direction Générale de l’Armement, awarded the contract on May 4, per a company statement.

The study comes as Naval Group prepares its extra-large unmanned underwater vehicle (XL-UUV) demonstrator for sea qualification this summer. The company began developing the system in 2016 and first unveiled it in 2021.

Once qualified, Naval Group will use the XL-UUV to test various “technological bricks” in a short cycle, the company said. One such brick could be the Controlled Decision-Making Autonomy (ADC) capability, developed with France’s national aerospace research center ONERA to be an “onboard brain for drones.”

“This first UCUV project paves the way for additional work to quickly develop the key technological bricks of such a drone, in relation to the development of the first demonstrator,” Naval Group said in the release.

The company did not respond to questions regarding the cost of the study before this article’s publication.

Seabed warfare has become a dominant topic of conversation in Europe, especially for the French military. Paris was the first government to issue a dedicated military strategy for the ocean floor domain in early 2022, and a portion of the nation’s €10 billion ($10.7 billion) dedicated to innovation in the proposed 2024-2030 Military Program Law will focus on the topic. A key goal for Paris is to develop an underwater drone that can reach depths of 6,000 meters.

The lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, voted on Wednesday to approve the six-year programming law, known as the Loi de Programmation Militaire (LPM) in French, by a vote of 408-87. The bill now goes to the Senate as the upper chamber for a vote.

The Modular Unmanned Ground System (iMUGS) program, led by the Estonian company along with a dozen consortium members from across the EU, completed all contractual activities and reached its objectives in May 2023, Milrem said in a statement.

“During iMUGS the consortium demonstrated that unmanned systems play a crucial role in military environments and scenarios, paving the way for wider adoption and use of these systems in the near future,” said Milrem CEO Kuldar Väärsi.

The project, whose goal was to deliver a standard architecture for unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) to the European Commission, lasted 30 months. On April 26, the sixth and final iMUGS demonstration was held at the San Juan del Viso military grounds in Madrid, Spain.

At the closing event, two modified THeMIS vehicles, Milrem’s reference platform for the program, were used to showcase their capabilities at the individual level, without operator involvement, and in swarming operations.

The culmination of the project takes place against the backdrop of a pending security review by the European Commission. The probe evaluates Milrem’s claims that its recent takeover by EDGE Group won’t harm EU security interests in the context of defense-cooperation projects like iMUGS and possible follow-on endeavors.

The assessment, which began in March, is still “in progress and ongoing, with no announcement at this stage,” an EU official told Defense News this week.

Few details have been released regarding an envisaged second phase of the iMUGS project. Thus far, all new information has regarded its peer initiative, the Integrated Unmanned Ground Systems 2 (IUGS2). That project which is part of the bloc’s PESCO cooperation scheme, which is, at least in theory, about governments teaming up on capability improvements as opposed to contractors taking the lead.

Led by Milrem’s home government Estonia, it involves nine EU countries, and its objective is to produce a UGV capable of manned-unmanned and unmanned-unmanned teaming with other autonomous robotic platforms as well as manned main battle tanks.

Intelligent robotics and autonomous systems could allow Marines to operate faster, more cheaply and at lower risk than before, states a document published Monday with updates to Force Design 2030, the Corps’ ambitious restructuring plan.

Marine leaders say recent conflicts ― particularly those between Ukraine and Russia, and Armenia and Azerbaijan ― have confirmed the need for the Corps to get better at employing autonomous systems.

“We clearly recognize and acknowledge the importance of intelligent robotic and autonomous systems,” Lt. Gen. Karsten Heckl, deputy commandant for Combat Development and Integration, said at a media roundtable Friday. “I feel like we’re in front of it right now. And we’ve got to stay there.”

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But Marine leaders aren’t yet sure how they will find or train people with the knowledge to operate those systems.

“Finding the structure, finding the right people and then getting them properly trained is a whole nother set of challenges,” Heckl said.

One thing Heckl said he does know: Robotics work won’t be relegated to a collateral duty or a secondary military occupational specialty.

At the roundtable Friday, Marine generals stressed that technology won’t replace human beings.

In the case of uncrewed aircraft that collect massive amounts of data, “you have to have the ability to do with that data what needs to be done so that humans who are the ultimate decision-makers have the ability to make the correct decision,” said Brig. Gen. Stephen Lightfoot, director of the Corps’ Capabilities Development Directorate.

By September, the Corps will incorporate robotics concepts and applications into its training and education centers, according to the Force Design update.

In the following year, leadership “will develop a strategy to recruit and retain personnel with IRAS knowledge” and “to integrate robotics specialties throughout the total force,” the update states.

That could mean forming an occupational field dedicated to the technology, according to the update.

But it has proven tough for the Marine Corps, as for the other services, to recruit and retain troops who possess the valuable technical knowledge that could translate to higher salaries in the civilian sector.

The Corps is trying out a variety of strategies to fill its tech gap. It is offering bonuses, making use of expertise reservists developed at their civilian jobs, and letting some people with in-demand skills join or rejoin at a higher rank than they otherwise would ― a program called lateral entry.

Lateral entry is one option the Marine Corps is considering as a way to lure people with robotics expertise, according to Monday’s Force Design update.

The update also raises the possibility of holding robotics competitions as a recruiting tactic.

“A lot of this discussion is undefined,” Heckl said. “What we do realize is the significance of this. There’s a lot of folks … that say this is the 21st-century equivalent of the machine gun. So this is a big deal.”

This move comes as part of the Corps’ ongoing Force Design 2030 modernization effort to prepare the service to deter or win a fight against China and other potential adversaries.

The Marine Corps on Monday released an annual status update on Force Design efforts, which included a nod to the service’s Long-Range Attack Munition effort supported by the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, “to rapidly develop and field a low-cost, air launched family of loitering, swarming munitions.”

In a June 2 call with reporters, Brig. Gen. Stephen Lightfoot, director of the Capabilities Development Directorate, noted that as an AH-1 pilot, he has firsthand experience with the Hellfire missile. Depending on the helicopter’s altitude, a pilot might get 8 kilometers (5 miles) of range from the weapon.

“That’s great in [Operation Iraqi Freedom], [Operation Enduring Freedom] and areas we’ve been fighting in for years. But when you move over to the Indo-Pacific and some of the distances we’re talking about, 8 kilometers doesn’t really do as much as you’d want,” Lightfoot said.

Noting that the last H-1 attack helicopters were delivered last year and that the Corps will operate them for several more decades, he said the service must now pursue both evolutionary and revolutionary ideas to keeping these aircraft relevant to the fight.

The service is already experimenting with these long-range, loitering, swarming munitions and expects to field them “within the next few years,” Lightfoot noted.

“That is a capability that brings hundreds of kilometers, and that allows us to be able to use a current platform to be able to do things that we never thought we’d be able to do,” Lightfoot said, calling this development effort “critical.”

These munitions would also be operable from ground launchers, he added.

While the helicopters’ own range and maneuverability would enhance the munitions’ capability, Lightfoot said, aircraft aren’t always in the air. To ensure Marines operating forward have round-the-clock access to long-range offensive weapons, he said the service would pursue a launcher for use by ground troops.

In a separate interview on the Force Design update, Scott Lacy, the deputy director of the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, said the organization is working on this effort with the aviation community. The work includes studying munitions already on the market as well as other experimental capabilities.

The Force Design annual update noted “other projects include developing a common launcher for the family of ground launched loitering munitions and testing a low-cost, hypersonic booster in a form factor the Marine Corps can logistically support in a contested environment.”

Lacy did not elaborate much on the hypersonic booster, other than to say experimentation is ongoing at the lab.

In the same interview, Col. Daniel Wittnam, the director of the Marine Corps Integration Division, described another long-range offensive fires effort in which the service is involved, in conjunction with the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

The office provided money for the Corps to experiment using the Maritime Strike Tomahawk — a derivative of the legacy Tomahawk land-attack missile that the office directed in fiscal 2017 — as a land-based weapon.

Marines will use the Naval Strike Missile as their first ground-based, anti-ship missile but have previously said they intend to pursue other longer-range weapons for the future.

Wittnam said the 11th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division at Camp Pendleton, California, was standing up a battery to work with the Maritime Strike Tomahawk.

The question the Marines have as they consider this and other emerging capabilities is whether the technology is naval and expeditionary, given their focus on littoral operations in the Pacific, the colonel said.

He noted the current form factor is not, but he said the experimentation would continue. (The proof-of-concept system would mount the missile launcher on a Joint Light Tactical Vehicle chassis, a setup that already had a tip-over incident due to the center of gravity being off.)

Lt. Gen. Karsten Heckl, the deputy commandant for combat development and integration, told reporters during the June 2 roundtable that not all the ongoing experiments would be successesful, but the Corps would learn from all of them as it rapidly modernizes.

“I don’t have the luxury of, (A) test something, (B) get the feedback, (C) let’s make changes. You know, that takes years and years. We have to iterate and, if necessary, fail quickly and learn faster, and then iterate again,” he said.

In doing so, Heckl added, “we have made the fleet more capable. Period. Full stop.”

Air Force spokesperson Ann Stefanek said in a June 2 statement no such testing took place, adding that the service member’s comments were likely “taken out of context and were meant to be anecdotal.”

“The Department of the Air Force has not conducted any such AI-drone simulations and remains committed to ethical and responsible use of AI technology,” Stefanek said. “This was a hypothetical thought experiment, not a simulation.”

The killer-drone-gone-rogue episode was initially attributed to Col. Tucker “Cinco” Hamilton, the chief of AI testing and operations, in a recap from the Royal Aeronautical Society’s FCAS23 Summit in May. The summary was later updated to include additional comments from Hamilton, who said he misspoke at the conference.

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“We’ve never run that experiment, nor would we need to in order to realize that this is a plausible outcome,” Hamilton was quoted as saying in the Royal Aeronautical Society’s update. “Despite this being a hypothetical example, this illustrates the real-world challenges posed by AI-powered capability and is why the Air Force is committed to the ethical development of AI.”

Hamilton’s assessment of the plausibility of rogue-drone scenarios, however theoretical, coincides with stark warnings in recent days by leading tech executives and engineers, who wrote in an open letter that the technology has the potential to wipe out humanity if left unchecked.

Hamilton is also commander of the 96th Operations Group at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, which falls under the purview of the 96th Test Wing. Defense News on Thursday reached out to the test wing to speak to Hamilton, but was told he was unavailable for comment.

In the original post, the Royal Aeronautical Society said Hamilton described a simulation in which a drone fueled by AI was given a mission to find and destroy enemy air defenses. A human was supposed to give the drone its final authorization to strike or not, Hamilton reportedly said.

But the drone algorithms were told that destroying the surface-to-air missile site was its preferred option. So the AI decided that the human controller’s instructions not to strike were getting in the way of its mission, and then attacked the operator and the infrastructure used to relay instructions.

“It killed the operator because that person was keeping it from accomplishing its objective,” Hamilton was quoted as saying. “We trained the system, ‘Hey don’t kill the operator, that’s bad. You’re gonna lose points if you do that.’ So what does it start doing? It starts destroying the communication tower that the operator uses to communicate with the drone to stop it from killing the target.”

The Defense Department has for years embraced AI as a breakthrough technology advantage for the U.S. military, investing billions of dollars and creating the the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office in late 2021, now led by Craig Martell.

More than 685 AI-related projects are underway at the department, including several tied to major weapon systems, according to the Government Accountability Office, a federal auditor of agencies and programs. The Pentagon’s fiscal 2024 budget blueprint includes $1.8 billion for artificial intelligence.

The Air and Space forces are responsible for at least 80 AI endeavors, according to the GAO. Air Force Chief Information Officer Lauren Knausenberger has advocated for greater automation in order to remain dominant in a world where militaries make speedy decisions and increasingly employ advanced computing.

The service is ramping up efforts to field autonomous or semiautonomous drones, which it refers to as collaborative combat aircraft, to fly alongside F-35 jets and a future fighter it calls Next Generation Air Dominance.

The service envisions a fleet of those drone wingmen that would accompany crewed aircraft into combat and carry out a variety of missions. Some collaborative combat aircraft would conduct reconnaissance missions and gather intelligence, others could strike targets with their own missiles, and others could jam enemy signals or serve as decoys to lure enemy fire away from the fighters with human pilots inside.

The Air Force’s proposed budget for FY24 includes new spending to help it prepare for a future with drone wingmen, including a program called Project Venom to help the service experiment with its autonomous flying software in F-16 fighters.

Under Project Venom, which stands for Viper Experimentation and Next-gen Operations Model, the Air Force will load autonomous code into six F-16s. Human pilots will take off in those F-16s and fly them to the testing area, at which point the software will take over and conduct the flying experiments.

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The Royal Aeronautical Society’s post on the summit said Hamilton “is now involved in cutting-edge flight test of autonomous systems, including robot F-16s that are able to dogfight.”

The Air Force plans to spend roughly $120 million on Project Venom over the next five years, including a nearly $50 million budget request for FY24 to kick off the program. The Air Force told Defense News in March it hadn’t decided which base and organization will host Project Venom, but the budget request asked for 118 staff positions to support the program at Eglin Air Force Base.

In early 2022, as public discussions about the Air Force’s plans for autonomous drone wingmen gathered steam, former Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James told Defense News that the service must be cautious and consider ethical questions as it moves toward conducting warfare with autonomous systems.

James said that while the AI systems in such drones would be designed to learn and act on their own, such as taking evasive maneuvers if it were in danger, she doubted the Air Force would allow an autonomous system to shift from one target to another on its own if that would result in human deaths.

There has been no suggestion that U.S.-made drones or munitions were used in the recent attacks on Moscow, and U.S. officials have repeatedly said that Ukraine has agreed not to use any American-provided weapons for attacks on Russian soil. The Kremlin blamed Kyiv for Tuesday’s attack, but Ukrainian officials had no direct comment.

Russia launched ‘largest drone attack’ on Ukrainian capital

But the new aid package comes at a tense moment in the war. The latest drone attack on Moscow follows Russia’s seizure of the eastern Ukrainian city Bakhmut after a nine-month battle that killed tens of thousands of people. Ukraine is also showing signs that its long-awaited spring counteroffensive may already be underway.

The Russian Defense Ministry said five drones were shot down in Moscow and the systems of three others were jammed, causing them to veer off course. President Vladimir Putin called it a “terrorist” act by Kyiv.

A U.S. defense official said the drone strikes would not affect the weapons aid packages the U.S. is providing Ukraine, to include drone ammunition. The official said the U.S. has committed to supporting Ukraine in its effort to defend the country and Ukraine had committed to not using the systems inside Russia, so the aid would likely continue unchanged.

All of the U.S. officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because the latest aid package has not yet been publicly announced.

U.S. officials did not provide details on the drone munitions in the new aid package or specify which unmanned aircraft would use them. The Defense Department has given Ukraine a variety of unmanned aircraft over the last year, for both surveillance and attacks, including at least two versions of the Switchblade, a so-called kamikaze drone that can loiter in the air and then explode into a target.

Other more sophisticated drones can drop munitions, but the U.S. has been reluctant to publicly share details about those.

Also included in the newest package will be munitions for Patriot missile batteries and the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), Stinger missiles for the Avenger system, mine-clearing equipment, anti-armor rounds, unguided Zuni aircraft rockets, night vision goggles, and about 30 million rounds of small arms ammunition, said the U.S. officials.

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The aid greatly resembles other recent U.S. packages, which have focused on providing Ukraine more ammunition for the weapons systems it has and helping it prepare for a counteroffensive to push back against Russian gains over the past year. Ukrainian officials have not formally announced the launch of their much-anticipated counteroffensive, although some say it has already begun and the pace of attacks suggests that it’s underway.

Including the latest aid, the U.S. has committed more than $37.6 billion in weapons and other equipment to Ukraine since Russia attacked on Feb. 24, 2022. This latest package will be done under presidential drawdown authority, which allows the Pentagon to take weapons from its own stocks and quickly ship them to Ukraine, officials said.

Officials said the U.S. is expected to announce the aid as soon as Wednesday.

Tuesday’s strikes on Moscow were the second drone strikes on the city since May 3, when Russian officials said two drones targeted the Kremlin in what they portrayed as an attempt on Putin’s life. Ukraine denied it was behind that attack.

U.S. intelligence officials were still trying to ascertain if Ukraine had any involvement in or prior knowledge of Tuesday’s drone attack in Moscow, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter who was not authorized to comment and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Last week, the Russian border region of Belgorod was the target of one of the most serious cross-border raids since the war began, with two far-right pro-Ukrainian paramilitary groups claiming responsibility.

The U.S. conveyed after that incident that American-made weaponry must not be used inside Russia, according to a U.S. official familiar with the sensitive communications. The message was “very clearly understood,” according to the official.

Officials in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar, near annexed Crimea, said two drones struck there on Friday, damaging residential buildings. Other drones have reportedly flown deep into Russia multiple times.

Ukrainian military analysts, though unable to confirm Kyiv had launched the drones against Moscow, said the attack may have involved UJ-22 drones, which are produced in Ukraine and have a maximum range of about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles).

U.S. officials struck a delicate balance in responding to the drone strikes, reiterating support for Ukraine while stressing that the U.S. opposes Ukrainians using American weapons in Russia. They noted that Russia’s bombardment of Kyiv on Tuesday was the 17th round of attacks this month, “many of which have devastated civilian areas.”

Lee reported from Oslo. Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani and Tara Copp contributed to this report.

The Russian defense ministry said five drones were shot down and the systems of three others were jammed, causing them to veer off course. It called the incident a “terrorist attack” by the “Kyiv regime.”

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The attack caused “insignificant damage” to several buildings, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. Two people received medical attention for unspecified injuries but did not need hospitalization, he said in a Telegram post. Residents of two high-rise buildings damaged in the attack were evacuated, Sobyanin said.

Andrei Vorobyov, governor of the wider Moscow region, said some of the drones were “shot down on the approach to Moscow.”

Ukraine made no immediate comment on the attack, which would be one of its deepest and most daring strikes into Russia since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than 15 months ago.

The attacks have raised questions about the effectiveness of Russia’s air defense systems.

A senior Russian lawmaker, Andrei Kartapolov, told Russian business news site RBC that “we have a very big country and there will always be a loophole where the drone can fly around the areas where air defense systems are located.”

Kartapolov said the purpose of the attacks was to unnerve the Russian people. “It’s an intimidation act aimed at the civilian population,” RBC quoted him as saying. “It’s designed to create a wave of panic.”

Moscow residents reported hearing explosions before dawn. Police were seen working at one site of a crashed drone in southwest Moscow. An area near a residential building was fenced off, and police put the drone debris in a cardboard box before carrying it away.

At another site, apartment windows were shattered and there were scorch marks on the building’s front.

It was the second reported attack on Moscow. Russian authorities said two drones targeted the Kremlin earlier this month in what they portrayed as an attempt on President Vladimir Putin’s life.

Ukrainian drones have reportedly flown deep into Russia several times. In December, Russia claimed it had shot down drones at airfields in the Saratov and Ryazan regions. Three soldiers were reported killed in the attack in Saratov, which targeted an important military airfield.

Earlier, Russia reported shooting down a Ukrainian drone that targeted the headquarters of its Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol in Russia-annexed Crimea.

In Ukraine, Russia launched a pre-dawn air raid on Kyiv, killing at least one person and sending the capital’s residents again scrambling into shelters.

At least 20 Shahed explosive drones were destroyed by air defense forces in Kyiv’s airspace in Russia’s third attack on the capital in the past 24 hours, according to early information from the Kyiv Military Administration. Overall, Ukraine shot down 29 of 31 drones fired into the country, most in the Kyiv area, the air force later added.

Before daylight, the buzzing of drones could be heard over the city, followed by loud explosions as they were taken down by air defense systems.

In the overnight attacks on Kyiv, one person died and seven were injured, according to the municipal military administration. A high-rise building in the Holosiiv district caught fire after being hit by debris either from from drones being hit or interceptor missiles.

The building’s upper two floors were destroyed, and there may be people under the rubble, the Kyiv Military Administration said. More than 20 people were evacuated.

Resident Valeriya Oreshko told The Associated Press in the aftermath that even though the immediate threat was over, the attacks had everyone on edge.

“You are happy that you are alive, but think about what will happen next,” the 39-year-old said.

A resident who gave only her first name, Oksana, said the whole building shook when it was hit.

“Go to shelters, because you really do not know where it (the drone) will fly,” she advised others. “We hold on.”

Elsewhere in the capital, falling debris caused a fire in a private house in Darnytskyi district and three cars were set alight in Pechersky district, according to the military administration.

The series of attacks that began Sunday included a rare daylight attack Monday that left puffs of white smoke in the blue skies.

On that day, Russian forces fired 11 ballistic and cruise missiles at Kyiv at about 11:30 a.m., according to Ukraine’s chief of staff, Valerii Zaluzhnyi. All of them were shot down, he said.

Debris from intercepted missiles fell in Kyiv’s central and northern districts during the morning, landing in the middle of traffic on a city road and also starting a fire on the roof of a building, the Kyiv military administration said. At least one civilian was reported hurt.

The Russian Defense Ministry said it launched a series of strikes early Monday targeting Ukrainian air bases with precision long-range air-launched missiles. It claimed the strikes destroyed command posts, radars, aircraft and ammunition stockpiles, but didn’t say anything about hitting cities or other civilian areas.

Russia launched the “most massive attack” on the city overnight Saturday with Iranian-made Shahed drones, said Serhii Popko, a senior Kyiv military official. The attack lasted more than five hours, with air defense reportedly shooting down more than 40 drones.

A 41-year-old man was killed and a 35-year-old woman was hospitalized when debris fell on a seven-story nonresidential building and started a fire, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

Debris from a drone damaged the building of the Ukrainian Society of the Blind. On Sunday morning, organization member Volodymyr Golubenko came to pick up his things. He was helped by his son Mykola, who searched for his father’s belongings among the rubble and at the same time tried to describe to his father what his office looks like now.

“This wall on the right is destroyed and on left also,” said Mykola to his father.

Volodymyr Golubenko worked at this place for more than 40 years. He says it is a home for many blind people, because they come here to talk and support each other.

“If you don’t even have a job, it’s difficult to get a job now, because these events (war) have been going on since last year. At least people come here to chat,” said Volodymyr.

Like Golubenko, many people in his district heard the sound of Shahed drones for the first time. Among them was 36-year-old Yana, who has three boys. The family hid in a corridor all night.

“Something started to explode above us. The children ran here in fear,” said Yana.

Ukraine’s air force said that Saturday night was also record-breaking in terms of Shahed drone attacks across the country. Of the 54 drones launched, 52 were shot down by air defense systems.

In the northeastern Kharkiv province, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said a 61-year-old woman and a 60-year-old man were killed in two separate shelling attacks.

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Kyiv Day marks the anniversary of the city’s official founding. The day is usually celebrated with live concerts, street fairs, exhibitions and fireworks. Scaled-back festivities were planned for this year, the city’s 1,541st anniversary.

The timing of the drone attacks was likely not coincidental, Ukrainian officials said.

“The history of Ukraine is a long-standing irritant for the insecure Russians,” Ukraine’s chief presidential aide, Andriy Yermak, said on Telegram.

“Today, the enemy decided to ‘congratulate’ the people of Kyiv on Kyiv Day with the help of their deadly UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles),” Popko also wrote on the messaging app.

Local officials in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region said that air defense systems destroyed several drones as they approached the Ilsky oil refinery.

Russia’s southern Belgorod region, bordering Ukraine, also came under attack from Ukrainian forces on Saturday, local officials said. Regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov reported Sunday that a 15-year-old girl and a 17-year-old boy were wounded in the shelling.

Drone attacks against Russian border regions have been a regular occurrence since the start of the invasion in February 2022, with attacks increasing last month. Earlier this month, an oil refinery in Krasnodar was attacked by drones on two straight days.

Ukrainian air defenses, bolstered by sophisticated Western-supplied systems, have been adept at thwarting Russian air attacks — both drones and aircraft missiles.

Earlier in May, Ukraine prevented an intense Russian air attack on Kyiv, shooting down all missiles aimed at the capital. The bombardment, which additionally targeted locations across Ukraine, included six Russian Kinzhal aero-ballistic hypersonic missiles, repeatedly touted by Russian President Vladimir Putin as providing a key strategic competitive advantage and among the most advanced weapons in his country’s arsenal.

Sophisticated Western air defense systems, including American-made Patriot missiles, have helped spare Kyiv from the kind of destruction witnessed along the main front line in the country’s east and south. While most of the ground fighting is stalemated along that front line, both sides are targeting other territory with long-range weapons.

Against the backdrop of Saturday night’s drone attacks, Russia’s ambassador to the U.K., Andrei Kelin, warned of an escalation in Ukraine. He told the BBC on Sunday his country had “enormous resources” and it was yet to “act very seriously,” cautioning that Western supplies of weapons to Ukraine risked escalating the war to a “new dimension.” The length of the conflict, he said, “depends on the efforts in escalation of war that is being undertaken by NATO countries, especially by the U.K.”

Kelin’s comments are typical of Russian officials’ rhetoric with regard to Moscow’s military might, but contradict regular reports from the battlefield of Russian troops being poorly equipped and trained.

Also on Sunday, the death toll from Friday’s missile attack on the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, the regional capital of the Dnipropetrovsk province, rose to four. Regional. Gov. Serhii Lysak said that three people who were considered missing were confirmed dead. There were 32 people, including two children, wounded in the attack, which struck a building containing psychology and veterinary clinics.

Elise Morton reported from London.

The trials conducted by the AUKUS partners delivered several “world firsts,” including the live re-training and international exchange of AI models, according to the U.K. Ministry of Defence, which disclosed the news May 26, a month after testing.

More than 70 military and civilian defense personnel and industry players participated in the experiment, part of the AUKUS Advanced Capabilities Pillar, or Pillar 2, established to expedite the trilateral development of critical technologies, such as AI, quantum, cyber and hypersonics. Pillar 1 — more discussed — aims to help Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines.

Abe Denmark, the U.S. senior adviser to the secretary of defense for AUKUS, in a statement said the April demonstration was “truly a shared effort.”

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Together, teams developed models, directed different nations’ uncrewed aerial vehicles and evaluated performance. The joint deployments in the field featured Blue Bear Ghost and Insitu CT220 drones; Challenger 2 main battle tanks and Warrior armored vehicles; Viking uncrewed ground vehicles; a commercial FV433 Abbot self-propelled artillery gun; and a former Eastern Bloc BMP OT-90, an infantry fighting vehicle.

“By pooling our expertise and resources through our AUKUS partnerships,” Denmark said, “we can ensure that our militaries are equipped with the latest and most effective tools to defend our nations and uphold the principles of freedom and democracy around the world.”

Australian, U.K. and U.S. leaders have described AI as critical to international competitiveness in many sectors, finance, health and defense among them. By sharing AI and its underpinnings, the U.K. Ministry of Defence said in its announcement, the friendly militaries can figure out interoperability now, and not later, as well as save time and money.

https://www.federaltimes.com/federal-oversight/2023/05/25/biden-seeks-legislation-to-invest-in-australia-uk-defense-industries/

The U.S. Department of Defense’s fiscal 2024 budget blueprint featured a $1.8 billion allocation for AI, with Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks describing it as a “key technology” area. The department catalogued at least 685 ongoing AI projects as of early 2021, including several tied to major weapons systems.