Pentagon's C-UAS organization testing new red-air UAS
US manufacturer Dracoe's ISR unmanned aerial vehicle is being used as an target for counter-unmanned aerial systems testing with JIATF 401 (Janes/Meredith Roaten)
Dracoe, a US-based defence company, is producing an unmanned aerial system (UAS) that the Pentagon's counter-unmanned aerial systems (C-UAS) organization wants to use as targets for test and experimentation.
The drone is one of a few that Joint Interagency Task Force 401 (JIATF 401) used in an operational assessment of the Perennial Autonomy C-UAS drone Bumblebee V2 at Fort Benning, Georgia during July. The more varied types of air vehicle targets that the task force can use, the better the task force's test results, a JIATF 401 official told Janes on 8 July.
During the evaluation, 75 th Ranger Regiment soldiers launched Bumblebee V2 off the ground and attempted to hit Group 1 and 2, the smallest category of UAS, out of the sky. JIATF 401 evaluators preprogrammed flight paths for DJI Matrice and Dracoe's quadcopter to simulate vehicles that might threaten US facilities and installations, JIATF 401 organizers told Janes . Bumblebee V2 used automatic target recognition software to lock onto the vehicles before entering the terminal phase and ramming into them at a high speed, Janes learnt during the evaluation.
This was the first time that Dracoe's product was flown in a JIATF 401 evaluation, said the task force official.
The relatively cheap UASs were selected because Perennial Autonomy's quadcopter would be most likely to go up similar drones trying to collect intelligence about US sensitive sites.
The domestic defence mission is one of JIATF's top priorities, said Lieutenant Colonel Adam Scher, JIATF 401 spokesperson.
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