{"id":35280,"date":"2018-08-01T19:15:43","date_gmt":"2018-08-01T19:15:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/uncategorized\/2018\/08\/01\/us-army-increases-investment-on-counter-drone-matv-program\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:25:35","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:25:35","slug":"us-army-increases-investment-on-counter-drone-matv-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/unmanned\/2018\/08\/01\/us-army-increases-investment-on-counter-drone-matv-program\/","title":{"rendered":"US Army increases investment on counter-drone program"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 Leonardo DRS has received an additional $13 million to continue engineering and testing a vehicle-mounted system that the U.S. Army hopes will protect soldiers from small drones, according to a July 31 Defense Department statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leonardo was awarded an initial $16 million contract by the Army in July 2017<\/a> to develop a counter-UAV capability dubbed the Mobile Low, Slow Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Integrated Defense System, or MLIDS, with hopes of deploying \u201cnumerous production systems in early summer 2018.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the annual Association of the U.S. Army conference in October,<\/a> the company announced it had received a $42 million production contract for an undisclosed number of MLIDS to fit the Army\u2019s requirement to defeat small, inexpensive unmanned systems such as quadcopters and fixed-wing aircraft that operate as airborne improvised explosive devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDrones are becoming an increasingly dangerous threat against our forward-deployed soldiers, and we are proud to support this urgent requirement to protect them from potentially lethal small unmanned aerial vehicles,\u201d Aaron Hankins, vice president and general manager for DRS Land Systems, said in October 2017. \u201cWe are working hard to deliver the best capability to our soldiers as quickly as possible.”<\/p>\n\n\n\t