Trust Automation brings layered defence to C-UAS space

Trust Automation's Rapid Deploy Small Unmanned Air Defense System (RD-SUADS) on display at the AUSA conference in October 2026 (Janes/Jeremiah Cushman)

Trust Automation, headquartered in San Luis Obispo, California, continues to develop its modular counter-unmanned aircraft system (C-UAS) for the US armed forces.

The Small Unmanned Air Defense System (SUADS) is a US Air Force programme of record, Ty Safreno, CEO and founder of Trust Automation, told Janes on 14 October during the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) annual conference in Washington, DC.

SUADS is designed to address Group 1 to Group 3 UAS threats under the Air Base Air Defense System (ABADS) programme, he said, noting that Shahed and similar drones used in the Middle East and Ukraine are Group 3 drones.

Safreno described the system as a set of products and a philosophy, noting that “the air force calls it Mr Potato Head”, referring to the toy where various accessories can be attached.

“We make the potato. We work in collaboration with the air force and the [US] Navy now, too, and come up with, create, and make the interfaces” for the sensors and other attached systems, he explained.

Trust Automation designs “pieces that are needed to glue those different technologies together. Sometimes it's mechanical. Sometimes it's electrical. Sometimes it's software. Sometimes it's all three into a thing like a gimbal,” Safreno said, adding that this enables the system to keep up with rapidly advancing technology.