Soldados de EEUU, Rumania y Polonia, se reunieron en este último país para experimentar con el sistema de defensa “Contra Drones” (C-UAS) MEROPS. Se trata de un sistema interceptor asistido por Inteligencia Artificial, que puede ser transportado en un vehículo mediano tipo pick-up. MEROPS es capaz de detectar amenazas como los drones Shahed de baja altura y velocidad, para neutralizarlos lanzando un interceptor de ala fija y muy bajo costo. Estos ensayos tienen por objetivo desarrollar capacidades C-UAS disponibles masivamente y de manera descentralizada entre los elementos de combate. Se espera que MEROPS sea provisto en un futuro cercano en las unidades de la NATO y aliados que operan en el Comando del Indo – Pacífico.
U.S. soldiers deployed to Europe had a busy November testing out counter-drone systems that the service hopes to get into the hands of more NATO allies, as well as with units and allies as far away as the Indo-Pacific.
First Polish, Romanian, and American troops trained together Nov. 18 in Poland on Merops, an AI-enabled, pickup-truck-transportable system that identifies enemy drones, then launches a cheap fixed-wing drone to ram them. At the same time, the Army held Operation Flytrap 4.5 in Germany, a competition of 20 cUAS contenders in a competition for one of four $350,000 prizes.
“It also demonstrated our capability, just as Flytrap did, to integrate with industry, to move very quickly to employ a capability that’s lethal,” Brig. Gen. Curt King, who leads the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command in Germany, told reporters Tuesday. “It can defeat the Shahed-type threats, but also it demonstrates our ability to place capabilities that are much cheaper than some of our other previous systems that we’ve been using to date, to ensure that we are able to build the capacity against the drone threats that could be placed into the air.”
The U.S. has been using air defense systems to shoot down drones, with missiles that cost millions of dollars each. A Merops interceptor drone costs about $15,000, about half the price of the Shaheds that Ukrainians have been shooting down with it.
“The other thing that we demonstrated with Flytrap, and that Ukraine has shown us … is the technology is rapidly evolving so that we can get to enhanced decision aids and autonomy, which Ukraine has been rapidly developing, so that I don’t need 10 soldiers to do a function,” King said.
U.S. soldiers deployed to Europe had a busy November testing out counter-drone systems that the service hopes to get into the hands of more NATO allies, as well as with units and allies as far away as the Indo-Pacific.
First Polish, Romanian, and American troops trained together Nov. 18 in Poland on Merops, an AI-enabled, pickup-truck-transportable system that identifies enemy drones, then launches a cheap fixed-wing drone to ram them. At the same time, the Army held Operation Flytrap 4.5 in Germany, a competition of 20 cUAS contenders in a competition for one of four $350,000 prizes.
“It also demonstrated our capability, just as Flytrap did, to integrate with industry, to move very quickly to employ a capability that’s lethal,” Brig. Gen. Curt King, who leads the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command in Germany, told reporters Tuesday. “It can defeat the Shahed-type threats, but also it demonstrates our ability to place capabilities that are much cheaper than some of our other previous systems that we’ve been using to date, to ensure that we are able to build the capacity against the drone threats that could be placed into the air.”
The U.S. has been using air defense systems to shoot down drones, with missiles that cost millions of dollars each. A Merops interceptor drone costs about $15,000, about half the price of the Shaheds that Ukrainians have been shooting down with it.
“The other thing that we demonstrated with Flytrap, and that Ukraine has shown us … is the technology is rapidly evolving so that we can get to enhanced decision aids and autonomy, which Ukraine has been rapidly developing, so that I don’t need 10 soldiers to do a function,” King said.
Fuente: https://www.defenseone.com
