{"id":30572,"date":"2021-01-07T21:11:46","date_gmt":"2021-01-07T21:11:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2021\/01\/07\/joint-strategy-calls-for-common-architecture-to-counter-increasingly-complex-drone-threats\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:33:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:33:37","slug":"joint-strategy-calls-for-common-architecture-to-counter-increasingly-complex-drone-threats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/pentagon\/2021\/01\/07\/joint-strategy-calls-for-common-architecture-to-counter-increasingly-complex-drone-threats\/","title":{"rendered":"New strategy wants to counter increasingly complex drone threats"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 The Pentagon released a new strategy<\/a> Jan. 7 to counter increasingly complex small drone threats<\/a>, one that focuses on establishing a common threat picture, architecture and protocol across the services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new strategy also sets up stronger coordination between other federal agencies in the homeland as well as with allies and partners abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drones are getting cheaper and easier to use and acquire. Small drones run the gamut from being nuisances in the wrong air space at the wrong time to being deadly, aiding adversaries in serious operations such as lasing targets for fires or collecting intel or becoming a weapon itself. Technology development in autonomy and artificial intelligence is making swarming drones even easier to coordinate and integrate into operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Military leaders approved a set of requirements to help counter small unmanned aircraft systems in late September 2020. That move created a path for the development of materiel and non-materiel solutions to work within a common command-and-control system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The requirements were developed by the newly established Joint Counter-sUAS office \u2014 or the JCO \u2014 led by the Army that has been tasked to round up the plethora of C-sUAS systems<\/a> \u2014 over 40 items \u2014 used to answer urgent needs in the Middle East and to consolidate the technology into a group of interim systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, the JCO was directed to develop a joint strategy that focuses on an evolving and growing threat and to manufacture long-term solutions that are designed to address the threat .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For now the office has picked three systems-of-systems approaches<\/a> \u2014 one from each service \u2014 for fixed and semi-fixed sites, settling on the Light-Mobile Air Defense Integrated System from the Marine Corps as a mounted or mobile system; Bal Chatri, Dronebuster and Smart Shooter for dismounted, hand-held systems; and one command-and-control system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The strategy focuses on appropriate solutions for the homeland, in host nations and during contingency operations and acknowledges that these may differ in a variety of ways based on a variety of factors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The central challenge in carrying out a new C-sUAS strategy is moving quickly while making well-informed decisions. The strategy states, the DoD should \u201ccontinuously evaluate the efficiency of our processes to provide effective materiel and non-materiel solutions to the Joint Force. Transformational processes, such as the Adaptive Acquisition Framework, can streamline efforts to meet the unique requirements of the C-sUAS problem set.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the strategy also notes that some acquisition processes designed to support conventional operations may take too long when it comes to capability development. It says, \u201cif our processes do not adequately respond to the needs of a rapidly changing security environment, we must take a new approach.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t