Pentagon’s counter-UAS chief wants more widespread training on drone-killer systems

Jon Harper
Aug 23, 2022 | FEDSCOOP

The Ukraine-Russia war highlights the need for more U.S. troops to learn how to use counter-drone weapons on the frontlines of future battlefields, according to the director of the Pentagon’s Joint Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office (JCO).

Ukraine and Russia have employed a variety of airborne robotic platforms in the ongoing conflict — including modified commercial drones — for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and to attack their adversary’s forces. The U.S. military is sounding the alarm about the need to beef up its counter-unmanned aerial system (C-UAS) arsenal and skill set for forward-deployed soldiers to address these types of threats.

“What we’re seeing in Ukraine, I think, is bringing more to light of what we already know — that when you scale this [drone] capability from a small quadcopter…