America Just Shot Down a Drone—with Another Drone
The US Army recently achieved its first air-to-air kill of a drone through the use of another drone.
As unmanned aerial systems are increasingly becoming a popular method to wage warfare around the world—particularly in Ukraine, where low-cost and deadly drones have fundamentally reshaped the conflict—developing systems and techniques to shoot down drones is becoming a priority for the US military.
Now, the Army has debuted a hunter-killer drone designed to take out enemy unmanned aerial systems on the battlefield.
In a video released by the 173rd Airborne Brigade, a red target drone can be seen flying at a low altitude. All of a sudden, the 173rd drone dives from the right and crashes on the target, sending both drones spiraling down to the ground.
“A Sky Soldier–flown FPV drone. A claymore mine. One midair kill. Over the skies of Fort Rucker, the 173rd Airborne Brigade, Pennsylvania Army National Guard, and DEVCOM AC’s [Development Command Armaments Center] Project Shank made history with the Army’s first air-to-air kill by an armed FPV [First Person View] drone,” the 173rd Airborne Brigade said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
Neutralizing enemy unmanned aerial systems can be done either by electronic warfare means—wrestling away control of a drone from its operator........
© The National Interest
