From the Wall Street Journal via MSN, August 10:
BEMOWO PISKIE, Poland—When U.S. Army Sgt. Sebastian Zouzoulas became an electronic-warfare specialist, his main focus was detecting remote-control roadside explosives. That was four years ago—a whole generation back on the battlefield.
Today, his work is all about countering drones.
Wars in Ukraine, the Middle East and across Africa are rewriting the rules of combat, with small, expendable and deadly drones increasingly critical. Militaries are sprinting to mass-produce the weapons and understand how best to fit them into fighting plans.
As with every new weapon, a parallel race is on to thwart the new killers. Tacticians are grappling with how to defend against attacks massing dozens or hundreds of drones—without spending a fortune.
“Whatever weapon system or munition you shoot at another adversary’s capability, it should be cheaper than what you’re shooting down,” Army Gen. Christopher Donahue, commander of U.S. land forces in Europe and Africa, recently told a gathering in Germany.
Days after setting that challenge, Donahue was at an Army base in the Polish countryside, watching forces try to accomplish it at an exercise dubbed Project Flytrap 4.0.
The fourth in a series of learn-by-doing events, the U.S.-British maneuvers brought together top brass, tech developers and soldiers like Zouzoulas. While troops staged engagements under drenching rain across the training grounds’ woods and fields, officers and officials filled a base auditorium to absorb lessons from drone combat in Ukraine and hear about the efforts of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to apply those lessons. Outside, soldiers and technicians exhibited some of the gear being tested.
NATO, which recently agreed to a spending increase, must ensure “that we are strong enough that we don’t have to fight because no one wants to take us on—because we’ve deterred them,” said U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker, who attended Flytrap.
The base where Poland hosted the exercise sits about 50 miles from both the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad and the Polish city of Suwalki, which NATO fears that Russia considers a target because of its location between Kaliningrad and Moscow’s ally Belarus.
Project Flytrap began in March with initial research and testing. It has grown in scale and ambition, with 4.0 the first time troops integrated counterdrone systems into battalion-level fighting. The engagement scenario involved several dozen troops attacking roughly 180 defenders in traditional land battles augmented with hundreds of drones, employed in the most realistic ways possible short of lethality, said organizers.
To crank up intensity, they packed into the four-day exercise a relentless series of attacks, engagements and threats modeled on fighting in Ukraine and other conflicts.
“It’s terrifying, watching the drones counter each other,” said Zouzoulas of the scenes on Ukraine’s front lines.
Adapting to that reality is Flytrap’s focus. Troops from the Army’s 2nd Cavalry Regiment, based in Germany, and the U.K.’s Royal Yorkshire Regiment used new devices—some developed in-house and some from private companies—to track, jam and shoot down drones sent at them by other U.S. forces.
“It’s very much a cat-and-mouse game,” said Army Lt. Col. Jeremy Medaris, a leader of the exercise. Drones keep adapting, “so then you have to have an adaptation as well” to counter them. Instead of seeking a single solution, he said, the emphasis is on developing a flexible and layered approach with a range of tools.
Zouzoulas’s Terrestrial Layer System-Brigade Combat Team Manpack tackles the first stage in drone-fighting: spotting attackers. A sort of antenna, known as a Beast+, resembles a cactus growing out of a backpack, connected by wire to a screen the size of a smartphone. Designed for foot soldiers on the move, it scans for nearby drones’ radio signals and jams them.
An even smaller wearable system resembles two big walkie-talkies. Dubbed Wingman and Pitbull, they also seek and jam drones’ radio signals....
....MUCH MORE
If interested see also:
November 2024 - "Laser wars: US-China in drone-killing, directed-energy arms race"
As we said in outro from one of the Anduril posts: "Anti-drone technology is so hot right now."
May 2025 - "A Counter to Drone Swarms: High-Power Microwave Weapons"
June 2025 - RAND: "Defending U.S. Military Bases Against Drones? A Recent Tabletop Exercise Explores How"
With the success of both the Ukrainian "Spiderweb" and the Israeli drone operations it is probably a good idea to keep an eye on the sky. And watch out for semi-trailer trucks and shipping containers.
In fact, don't go out at all for a few months. Which of course implies buying Amazon or other delivery company stock....
July 2025 - "The end of drone supremacy"
That was quick.