Army Air Defense Evolves to Meet Evolving Threats

Army Air Defense Evolves to Meet Evolving Threats

Soldiers conduct counter-UAS training in Poland.
Photo by: U.S. Army/Staff Sgt. Jasmine McCarthy

The Army’s air defense branch is transforming to meet the rapidly evolving threat of unmanned aircraft systems, a panel of Army leaders said.

“The air defense branch … [is] undergoing our most significant modernization and growth … in at least the last 40 years,” said Col. Glenn Henke, commandant of the Army Air Defense Artillery School. “On the counter-UAS side, last year we published our first Army techniques publication for counter-UAS, and we are now in a 12- to 14-month revision cycle.”

Unmanned aircraft systems usually “consist of an unmanned aircraft vehicle paired with a ground control station,” according to a Congressional Research Service report on those systems.

Speaking on a panel during the Association of the U.S. Army’s Hot Topic on aviation, Hanz Heinrichs, vice president of government affairs of defense contractor Epirus, said “drones are relatively new, and they're proliferating at a commercial scale.”

“Our adversary nations are investing in drones because they're cost effective,” he said. Using drones, U.S. adversaries “can harass, they can confuse, and they complicate any number of any manner of our planning and our locations and our ability to operate.”

Drone use during the Russia-Ukraine war and the Israel-Hamas war has been “the best innovation lab we could ask for,” said Col. Nicholas Ryan, director of the Army capability manager for unmanned aircraft systems.

“We can see everything [that's] happening, every piece of equipment they're using, every kit,” Ryan said. “We're not looking for equipment or sets or kits. We’re looking for those capabilities to put into our formations.”

The Army will need to constantly update its doctrine as technology evolves, said retired Lt. Gen. Anthony Crutchfield, vice president of Army systems at Boeing.

“This technology changes so rapidly. I think the problem that we solve today will not be the problem to face tomorrow,” Crutchfield said. “We're going to constantly have to talk about this. It cannot be a one and done thing. Doctrine, process, procedures … will change as rapidly as that technology changes.”

Beyond technology itself, “battlefield geometry is changing at every echelon,” Ryan said.

“We can see farther, we can affect farther and, even at a platoon leader level, every echelon has the ability now to affect and control their three-dimensional battle space,” he said. “Even [platoon leaders] ... [are] going to have the responsibility in the air-ground littoral.”