The 74-page whitepaper, which the service unveiled during its annual symposium this week and which builds on a similar document published four years ago, details planned procurements out to 2037.

“The Air Force is aware of [the importance of] long-term development planning and spending of the national budget to achieve maximum value,” said the service’s commander, Air Chief Marshal Panpakdee Pattanakul.

Indeed, part of the whitepaper’s raison d’être is to stake claims for long-term funding as its aircraft inventories age. For instance, the 2020 version stated the fighter fleet had an average age of 26 years, a figure that continues to increase.

But the government’s procurement process is disjointed, according to Greg Raymond, an expert in Asia-Pacific affairs at the Australian National University. He cited factors like political instability, inadequate strategic planning, annual rather than multiyear budgeting measures, and weak civil oversight that allows each armed service to makes its own decisions.

In the latest whitepaper, the Air Force gives priority to a medium-range air defense system possessing a minimum 30-nautical-mile range from fiscal 2025 to fiscal 2028. Afterward, from FY33 to FY37, the service plans to carry out a second phase for a medium- or long-range air defense system.

From FY28 to FY32, the force plans to buy a short-range air defense system boasting gun-, missile and laser-based weapons. Credence is given to counter-drone systems, too, and a nine-year project to procure these is to commence in 2025.

The service is also eyeing 12-14 new fighters to replace the F-16 jets of 102 Squadron based at Korat. The procurement is scheduled to take place from FY25 to FY34, two years later than originally planned. The squadron’s F-16s from the late 1980s are to retire by 2028.

Two contenders have emerged for the aircraft requirement: Lockheed Martin’s F-16 Block 70/72 and Saab’s Gripen.

“We’re confident the F-16 Block 70/72 will complement the RTAF’s existing F-16 fleet and deliver the advanced 21st century security capabilities and performance needed to address Thailand’s most pressing defense requirements,” a Lockheed spokesperson told Defense News.

Thailand ordered its first Gripen C/D fighters in 2008. Following a January 2021 contract, the aircraft were upgraded to what the manufacturer calls the MS20 configuration.

Robert Björklund, who markets the Gripen to Thailand for Saab, told Defense News the existing fleet is integrated into the Saab-supplied Link T data system and that the aircraft provides its user with “a very wide range of weapon options, including its highly effective RBS15 anti-ship missile.”

A second fighter replacement project for 12-14 aircraft is slated for FY31 to FY35 to replace F-5E/F jets of 211 Squadron at Ubon that are to retire around the end of the decade. An identical number of fighters are needed to replace F-16A/Bs of 403 Squadron at Takhli from FY37 to FY46.

Thailand tries to maintain relations with several competing nations, including the United States, China, Russia and India, the whitepaper noted. Thailand previously purchase materiel from China, such as armored vehicles, air defense systems and a submarine.

Asked whether the Royal Thai Air Force would consider buying a Chinese fighter like the J-10CE, Raymond said the service values its relationship with the U.S. and likeminded allies too much to do so. He noted that Thai-U.S. relations have “largely stabilized,” despite the latter denying the former’s request to buy F-35A jets last year.

“They wouldn’t want to see themselves placed on the outer [circle] in terms of not getting invitations to things like [exercise] Pitch Black in Australia. I tend to think they’d be perhaps more careful about getting Chinese aircraft than the Thai Navy was about getting a submarine,” he said.

The whitepaper also detailed an effort starting this year to refurbish C-130H Hercules transport aircraft. The 2020 version recommended the service buy 12 replacements, but that idea was dropped.

As for pilot training, last year’s delivery of 12 T-6TH trainers allowed the Air Force to retire its Pilatus PC-9 fleet last month. New Zealand-built CT-4E trainers are to retire in 2031, so basic trainers will be needed from FY33. New lead-in fighter trainers are also sought from FY25, with Thailand already operating the South Korean T-50TH in this role.

The new whitepaper also emphasized unmanned technologies. One effort underway is the Thai-developed M Solar X solar-powered drone. Loitering munitions are also schedule for purchase by 2026, as are medium combat drones from FY26 to FY29 and high-altitude pseudo-satellites from FY24 to FY35.

The Air Force also mentioned procurement programs for micro- and nano-drone swarms from FY26, and a research and development effort for weaponized tactical drones from FY29.

And two Saab 340B Erieye airborne early warning aircraft are to receive enhanced command-and-control capabilities, with their dorsal-mounted radars to be replaced. This would take place from FY26 to FY29.

The government’s FY24 defense budget bill calls for a 198 billion baht (U.S. $5.5 billion) fund, of which $1 billion is for the Air Force. The service has already applied for an allocation of approximately $530 million for a first batch of four fighters.

The German vessel, newly arrived in the theater of operations, fired two Standard Missile-2 interceptors at the U.S. drone, but both missed, as German military news website Augengeradeaus first reported.

The attempted shoot-down came after a query with nearby allies about the status of the drone, which flew without a transponder turned on that would allow coalition forces to identify it as friendly, according to the report.

“We can confirm that a U.S. MQ-9 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle was targeted in the Red Sea Feb. 27,” a U.S. defense official told Defense News, adding that the aircraft was undamaged and continued its mission.

“CENTCOM is in close coordination with the EU and Operation Aspides to investigate the circumstances that led to this event and to ensure safe deconfliction of airspace,” the official added, using shorthand for U.S. Central Command, the command overseeing American operations in the Middle East.

Germany’s air defense frigate Hessen received parliamentary approval to partake in the European Union’s Operation Aspides last week while already underway to the Red Sea. It is joining a collection of allied warships organized under the EU auspices or the U.S.-led Operation Prosperity Guardian to protect marine traffic in the vital cargo route from drone and missile attacks by the Yemen-based Houthi militia.

The group’s fighters are targeting civilian ships claiming support for Hamas in its war against Israel.

A German military spokesman declined to comment on the incident, pointing instead to comments by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius on Feb. 27 in which Pistorious confirmed the downing of two hostile drones and two failed attempts to intercept an additional, unspecified aircraft.

The government’s “Enhanced Lethality Surface Combatant Fleet” review, released Feb. 20, advocates for a flotilla of 26 warships, more than double the 11 hulls the service currently possesses. The government has accepted the recommendations except for one regarding the continuation of an upgrade for aging Anzac-class frigates.

“The size, lethality and capabilities of the future surface combatant fleet ensures that our Navy is equipped to meet the evolving strategic challenges of our region,” Chief of Navy Vice Adm. Mark Hammond said in a statement following the report’s unveiling.

Jennifer Parker, an expert associate at the National Security College within the Australian National University, told Defense News the force could achieve its new goal, even if “plans of this magnitude are going to have challenges.”

The plan

To supplement its forthcoming nuclear-powered submarines, to be acquired under the AUKUS agreement with the U.K. and U.S., the future surface combatant fleet will feature nine so-called tier 1 destroyers and frigates, 11 smaller tier 2 frigates, and six optionally manned vessels.

Tier 1 vessels will comprise three existing Hobart-class air warfare destroyers — to receive an upgrade to the Aegis combat system and the installation of Tomahawk missiles — and six new Hunter-class anti-submarine frigates. BAE Systems was originally supposed to produce nine frigates, with the first to be commissioned in 2034.

Parker, a former naval officer, said the most significant problem for the service is a looming capability gap, as the first-of-class Anzac frigate will not sail again, and a second is set to retire in 2026, meaning the Navy will have nine total warships by the end of this decade.

“Most predict an increased period of risk in the late 2020s, and that is where Australia has the capability gap,” Parker said, noting the the service should consider how to maximize its remaining capability and operational availability during this time.

With this pending shortfall, the review recommended commissioning 11 general-purpose frigates at least the size of the Anzacs to “provide maritime and land strike, air defence and escort capabilities,” the government explained in a summary of the report.

Australia plans to procure the first three frigates from overseas, with the remainder constructed in Henderson, Western Australia. The Navy has narrowed contenders to Germany’s MEKO A-200, Japan’s Mogami class, South Korea’s FFX Batch II/III, and Spain’s Alfa 3000. The government will make a selection next year, with the first delivery scheduled in 2030.

The planned six large optionally crewed surface vessels are based on an American design and feature 32 missile cells. Built in Henderson and destined to enter service from the mid-2030s, Parker said these are not traditional surface combatants because “their role will be to extend the magazine capability” of other ships.

Although Defence Minister Richard Marles said they would be crewed, Parker predicted they could end up as unmanned platforms.

“There are legal issues with lethal autonomous weapons and operating uncrewed surface vessels, so until those legal issues are overcome, the Australian government wasn’t about to announce that we’re going to have some sort of floating magazine that can launch missiles,” she said.

Apart from surface combatants, the review proposed a fleet of 25 “minor war vessels” for constabulary tasks. These include six Arafura-class offshore patrol vessels, or OPV, slashed from the original 12 that Luerssen Australia is constructing.

“The OPV is an inefficient use of resources for civil maritime security operations and does not possess the survivability and self-defence systems to contribute to a surface combatant mission,” the review stated.

The money

Marles said the entire plan is “fully funded” thanks to an additional AU$11.1 billion (U.S. $7.3 billion) allocated over the next decade, including AU$1.7 billion (U.S. $1.1 billion) in the next four years.

Parker said this amount is “probably feasible,” but added that the Treasury plans to only increase defense spending from 2027 to 2028. “I don’t know how they’re going to be able to resource those things without increasing defense spending in May,” she explained.

But even with the budget allocation, it doesn’t mean the Defence Department can spend that money, she said.

“They still need to go through the approval processes for that specific project,” she added. “I think the challenge is they need to convince the Australian public that defense requires increased spending.

Marles had promised defense expenditure would move from an anticipated 2.1% of gross domestic product by 2030 to 2.4% by that time, but Parker said that is insufficient to fund so many naval acquisitions.

The people

Amid the plans for new construction, a new shipbuilding plan is due later this year.

Parker noted many questions remain over that sector’s workforce, but a nationwide approach addressing education, migration and infrastructure factors would help.

But another challenge is crewing. The Defence Department planned to raise the number of military members by 2,201 in the 2022-2023 time frame, but instead it suffered a net loss of 1,389 uniformed personnel.

Paris-based Preligens, founded in 2016, offers two AI-based solutions, Robin, an imagery-analysis software, and Xerus, a computer system for military terrain mapping.

The systems work with commercial or government-collected satellite imagery, and they can help analysts determine whether objects of interest are civilian or military.

“It has been primarily designed for site monitoring and has an alerting system that can be set up for the customer for pattern-of-life analysis to cue analysts towards key signals that can identify aircraft, vessels, vehicles, surface-to-air missiles and more,” Coralie Trigano, the company’s senior sales executive for the Asian-Pacific region, told Defense News at the Singapore Airshow here.

The latest improvements made to the firm’s algorithms have included adding new detectable items as well as additional categories of objects that the software can spot.

“We recently developed a helicopter detector, that can now classify and identify precise models, and we have also improved the vehicle detector, which is now capable of detecting and categorizing civil, armored, military and electronics (radars) vehicles,” Sophie Hue, head of communication at Preligens, wrote in an email to Defense News.

Besides adding full-motion video gathered by drones to the mix of data sources, developers are also looking to implement analyses of synthetic-aperture radar images, Hue added.

The influx of the demand and development of drones, driven largely by the Ukraine war, has created a new era in cyber intelligence gathering.

To demonstrate the capabilities of their software, Preligens released its own imagery showing that China was carrying out major military infrastructure work at one of its naval bases in 2022.

The company’s vessel detector also was able to spot Russian air-cushioned landing craft that the country had stationed in the port of Baltiysk, Kaliningrad, in January 2022.

The military’s growing interest in manned-unmanned teaming comes amid a declining pool of 18-year-old conscripts and as relations with neighboring North Korea worsen.

Korea Aerospace Industries, a producer of various drones and crewed fighters, including the KF-21 Boramae and FA-50, is one of the companies leading the national effort.

In an exclusive briefing with Defense News, a KAI executive outlined the company’s four-phase road map to provide manned-unmanned teaming capabilities to the South Korean military.

“We have a very ambitious plan to create a system of systems for the future, and this is a combination of manned aircraft like the KF-21 and FA-50, together with unmanned combat vehicles as unmanned fighters, and also small-sized UAVs,” the executive said on the condition of anonymity, as the individual was not authorized to speak to the press.

South Korea’s Air Force plans to acquire both single-seat and twin-seat variants of the 4.5-generation KF-21, with first delivery scheduled for June 2026. The twin-seat jet, apart from its training role, is expected to perform manned-unmanned teaming, or MUM-T, in its Block III configuration. This would involve a pilot in the back seat — or perhaps artificial intelligence — controlling drones.

The KF-21 was designed so users could equip it with new technology even after production, and the intention is to eventually develop a fifth- and sixth-generation variant. This aim falls under what KAI calls the next-generation air and space combat system, a sophisticated and linked network of sensors and platforms such as satellites, airborne early warning aircraft, crewed fighter jets and drones.

Four phases

KAI is already implementing the first phase of its MUM-T road map, which began in 2023 and is to conclude next year. It involves the company and the Air Force collaboratively developing technologies to make MUM-T a reality with a helicopter and small, air-launched unmanned aerial vehicles. Once KAI proves the concept and technology for high-capacity communications and artificial intelligence, it will transition to more capable UAVs — which the company calls adaptable aerial platforms — to operate in conjunction with an FA-50 aircraft.

Although larger and possessing a longer endurance than the original air-launched UAVs, the recoverable “adaptable aerial platforms,” or AAPs, will not be excessively high-tech because they need to be affordable, the executive noted.

The second phase, to take place from 2025 to 2028, will culminate in a technology demonstration whereby an FA-50 testbed shows whether it can simultaneously control up to four adaptable aerial platforms. The demonstration is to feature AAPs acting as decoys to spoof the enemy; conducting electronic warfare with an onboard jammer; carrying out intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions with an electro-optical/infrared payload; or performing strike missions with its own warhead.

The third phase, to conclude by 2037, will transition increasingly capable MUM-T technologies from an FA-50 to a twin-seat KF-21. Simultaneously, KAI is expected to reach the engineering and manufacturing design stage for an additional type of combat drone acting as a loyal wingman to the piloted aircraft.

A single KF-21 would control up to four of the combat drones. In turn, each loyal wingman would command four AAPs. This essentially means the combat power of a single KF-21 would expand to 20 unmanned aircraft.

Work is already underway on such combat drones, as the government’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration chose Korean Air Aerospace Division in August 2022 to develop a new loyal wingman. Development of the so-called KUS-LW drone commenced in November 2021.

“The squadron of UAVs will not only support and escort a manned aircraft, but will also be able to perform its own missions including surveillance, electronic interference tactics and precise shooting,” according to Korean Air.

Finally, the fourth phase, from 2038 onward, in which KAI hopes to have sufficiently mastered MUM-T to attain a true system of systems: This is the fruition of the next-generation air and space combat system.

“It’s a kind of compressed development,” the KAI executive said regarding the four-phase process. “We believe we have to move, otherwise we will miss the chance. This time we have to act to get in front, utilizing the technology we have accumulated for the last 30 years.”

Indeed, South Korea’s defense and aerospace industry has the experience and capability to develop MUM-T capabilities, according to Douglas Barrie, a senior fellow for military aerospace at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank.

“As with most nations, however, it is at a relatively early stage in exploring, researching and developing such capabilities. Much will also depend on the extent of near-term ambition,” he told Defense News. “Any approach that allows you to bolster your combat mass at reasonable cost, and with systems that might allow the acceptance of higher attrition rates, is going to be attractive.”

Artificial intelligence is a key part of this. Algorithms can outperform their human counterparts in terms of decision-making speed, as crews must await orders from air operations center, plus an AI-enabled network can produce a swift kill chain.

“Within a very short time, they [the AI and aircraft] have to exchange a huge amount of data, so secure communications and software … are necessary for this future battlefield. Eventually, AI command — in other words, AI pilots in the aircraft, maybe in the back seat, we don’t know — will replace some parts of the air combat center,” the KAI executive said. “With these very special capabilities and features of the future system, the AI can make a decision within a very short time frame. This short procedure will give us a huge advantage, considering our enemy is not well prepared for this future battlefield.”

Partnerships

South Korea and KAI are also looking for foreign investors.

South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik visited the Middle East in early February, during which he met his Qatari, Saudi and Emirati counterparts to discuss defense cooperation and unmanned technology.

Meanwhile, KAI is seeking international partners as it develops the MC-X Orca multirole cargo aircraft. The aircraft has a maximum takeoff weight of 92 tons and is about 132 feet long — between the lengths of a C-130J and A400M. Anticipated roles for the MC-X include transportation, aerial refueling, special forces operations, space rocket launches, airborne early warning, medical evacuation and maritime patrol — as well as MUM-T.

If the project proceeds, production of the MC-X wouldn’t take place until as soon as 2035, a company spokesperson said at the Seoul ADEX defense exhibition last year.

“Our government is pretty much interested in having indigenous hardware, but there is a question when and how much they are willing to invest. So we are in discussion with our government, but at the same time we are looking for international partners interested in this idea of a multirole cargo aircraft. There are a couple of countries that would like to be partners in this initiative,” the KAI executive said, declining to name the countries.

The firm has previously tapped foreign sources to close gaps in its technological know-how. For example, in March 2021, the company signed a collaborative agreement with Israel Aerospace Industries for loitering munitions. In computer-generated promotional videos, KAI has shown IAI-style drones launched by Light Armed Helicopters and Surion choppers.

KAI also has export ambitions. The executive said there’s a potential export market for up to 800 KF-21 fighters over the next few decades, specifically citing Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as candidates.

And by demonstrating it can retrospectively integrate MUM-T capabilities onto FA-50 aircraft, the executive added, the company hopes to entice existing users like Indonesia, Iraq, Malaysia, the Philippines, Poland and Thailand to take advantage of the MUM-T technology.

“For the FA-50 and KF-21, we are not selling the current capability of the aircraft. We are at the same time trying to sell the value of this aircraft to do something else, something greater in the future, by giving them [potential customers] an idea of the MUM-T concept and a fifth-gen combat system — in other words, a system of systems,” the KAI executive said. “There is high value once they purchase the FA-50. With the capability, gradually year by year, they can operate this aircraft to be perfectly prepared for the future battlefield.”

Certainly KAI’s ability to achieve its four-phase MUM-T plan is possible, Barrie noted, but it’s not written in stone.

“In part, this will depend on how far and how quickly South Korea wants to develop the technology, combined with the kinds of roles associated with the uninhabited elements of any teaming architecture,” he said. “While ambition is laudable, it also needs to be realistic.”

The Taurus is the local technology company’s latest remote-operated product, shown for the first time publicly.

The firm completed development of the four-wheel drive electric vehicle last year, but does not have a launch customer, hence its unveiling at the air show this week, a company representative told Defense News on the condition of anonymity.

ST Engineering says the robot can be used for surveillance, casualty evacuation, logistics transport and material handling. The representative said the surveillance configuration has attracted the most interest. For material handling, the firm would fit the vehicle with a robotic arm.

The version at the show featured the company’s DrN-15 multirotor drone, which can fly beyond the operator’s visual line of sight. The drone received approval for flight by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore.

When operating in fully electric mode, it can reach distances of about 19 miles and has a base weight of approximately 3,527 pounds.

The representative said the Taurus is useful for manned-unmanned teaming, such as operating alongside the firm’s own eight-wheel drive Terrex s5 infantry fighting vehicle, also launched at the show.

ST Engineering recently doubled down on efforts to present Singapore-made and -designed autonomous ground vehicles, including the Hunter tracked platform, developed as a private venture by the company.

The drone, dubbed Hermes 650 Spark, is the latest member of Elbit System’s Hermes family of systems that have existed for decades.

“The Hermes 650 sits in between the 450 and 900 variants, it can carry 260 kilograms of useful payload spread across two payload bays, and can fly within a line-of-sight range of 300 kilometers with satellite communication capabilities,” Ziv Avni, vice president of business development at Elbit, told Defense News.

Avni said the new variant is able to fly beyond the operator’s line of sight and has an endurance of up to 24 hours. Although the platform wasn’t made for a specific customer, it integrates three key features that buyers have identified as important to them, he added.

“For our general customer base, we have noticed that keeping the life-cycle maintenance cost low — so overall cost-effectiveness — is important, as well as increasing the operational flexibility of flying at different speeds and taking off or landing on short runways,” Avni noted.

The Hermes 650 is able to take off from runways measuring less than 200 meters (656 feet). The company told Defense News it is already under contract from an unspecified customer to begin serial production next year.

The Republic of Singapore Air Force is one of the oldest operators of the Hermes 450, which was one of two drones it had on static display at the air show. The other was the Heron 1, manufactured by Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.

Singapore often looked to Israel as a key drone supplier, but this could change as the island nation aims to further invest in sovereign capabilities.

Avni declined to comment on whether the Singaporean service expressed interest in the newest variant, but did say he expects the Hermes 650 Spark “will eventually replace the Hermes 450 some customers operate.”

In theory, he added, it would only be a matter of a few weeks for operators to transition from flying one model to the other.

“Many of our customers now want a mixed fleet for drone operations. For instance, if a country is very big, it could choose to opt for the Hermes 900, as it has a greater endurance to carry out monitoring, and use the 650 to survey areas closer to shore,” Avni noted.

Elbit has heavily advertised the new drone for maritime security and border patrol missions. The configuration presented at the show was true to size and featured electronic warfare sensors.

The Moscow-based Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST) first announced in 2022 that a reward of one million rubles, or roughly $11,000, would be given to any military personnel seizing a THeMIS vehicle, made by Edge Group subsidiary Milrem Robotics, in relatively intact condition.

On Feb. 15, the center’s director, Ruslan Pukhov, told state-owned news agency RIA Novosti that the award would be raised to two million rubles, or almost $22,000.

The decision, Pukhov told RIA Novosti, was in response to a statement made by Estonian intelligence connecting the think tank to the Russian intelligence services.

He was referring to a recent report by the Baltic nation’s foreign intelligence service claiming that Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) was recruiting national academics and think tank experts who interact with foreign embassies.

The report directly targets Pukhov as a “protagonist” in this development, stating that he also has “extensive connections within Russia’s political leadership and the Russian Ministry of Defense.”

As of last month, Milrem had delivered 15 THeMIS unmanned vehicles to Ukraine’s forces, the company said in a Jan. 11 statement.

Company executives have said that the unmanned vehicles were performing especially well in missions related to demining and frontline cargo transport, citing feedback from Ukrainian soldiers.

Manufacturer Milrem is aware of the bounty placed on its vehicles, but executives say they are unfazed about the prospect of technology theft.

“Seems like I don’t have to work again this week since CAST has doubled their reward for capturing a THeMIS in Ukraine for 2 million rubles, thus doing marketing for me,” Gert Hankewitz, director of communications at Milrem, posted on LinkedIn this week.

In additional comments provided to Defense News, Hankewitz said that the company has “complete confidence in the Ukrainian army to utilize their THeMIS UGVs to their full capabilities and safeguard them against potential threats.”

The development speaks to the robot craze that seems to have grasped both sides in the Ukraine war. With troop or vehicle movements immediately detected and attacked, soldiers have resorted to sending robots on dangerous missions instead, according to analysts.

While some of these ground robots possess more advanced capabilities, as is the case for the THeMIS, others that have emerged on the battlefield are very basic in their design but yet appear to be effective in their logistics role.

Even with the special Russian interest in its THeMIS technology, Milrem said the company is ready to send more. “We look forward to providing additional systems in support of Ukraine if requested,” Hankewitz said.

“This is not a contractor-owned, contractor-operated capability, but this is a uniformed capability that we’ll be able to own [and] operate unmanned capabilities that can be employed within particular spaces,” Adm. Samuel Paparo said.

The Navy created its first unit dedicated to surface drones, Unmanned Surface Vessel Division 1, in 2022.

Paparo also said the Navy will launch Integrated Battle Problem 24.1 in March, which will pair manned and unmanned capabilities.

He mentioned that prior exercises involved drones traveling 50,000 miles over seven months, as well as experiments involving the placement of SM-6 missile launchers on large surface drones.

Del Toro asks Navy contractors to consider taxpayers over shareholders

Paparo also called the Navy’s unmanned work in various fleet commands “complementary battle labs” that are all pushing toward the same goal of honing unmanned and autonomous operations.

A primary goal of the work is to not unnecessarily risk sailor lives, he said.

“Don’t send a human being to do something dangerous that a machine can do better, faster and more cheaply,” Paparo said. “Ensure that you have the means of control.”

He noted much of this work is done quietly “for the simple reason that we don’t want to expose it to an adversary that would emplace a counter to that capability.”

“A key principle within warfare is the element of operational security,” Paparo said. “So for most exquisite capabilities, if I’m doing my job, you won’t be knowing about it.”

He began his keynote speech with a grim warning about the state of the globe. “The world is increasingly descending into chaos and disorder, and from Europe to the Middle East to the Pacific, we’re seeing significant shifts in state behaviors, and they are not random,” he said.

“At a recent state visit to Moscow, the [People’s Republic of China] president, I won’t utter his name, was overheard telling the Russian president that right now, there are changes the likes of which we haven’t seen for 100 years, and we are the ones driving those changes together,” Paparo said. “The changes referenced are challenges to our security, our freedom and our well-being.”

Vice Adm. Brendan McLane, the commander of Naval Surface Forces, said U.S. ships in the Red Sea are sending data about their engagements with Houthi threats back to the Naval Surface and Mine Warfighting Development Center, for the experts there to share ideas for how to best tune radars to optimize performance, as an example.

Those recommendations and updated tactics from SMWDC are already reflected in pre-deployment training events such as Surface Warfare Advanced Tactical Training and Composite Training Unit exercises on both coasts, he said.

McLane, who spoke on a panel at the WEST 2024 conference in San Diego hosted by the U.S. Naval Institute and AFCEA International, said the nature of the threat is changing, and as such, SMWDC continues to monitor and push out updated tactics and techniques.

When Houthi forces ashore in Yemen first started shooting at naval and merchant ships in the Red Sea on Oct. 19, McLane said, those early engagements “were drones and land-attack cruise missiles that were shot at long distance. Some of the more recent engagements are anti-ship cruise missiles and anti-ship ballistic missiles, for the first time, which have a much shorter reaction time for our ships.”

Elizabeth Nashold, the deputy commander of Naval Information Forces, said during the same panel that Arleigh Burke-class destroyer Carney “was ready on Day 1″ when the missiles began flying, due to its training and focus on battlespace awareness, assured command and control, and integrated fires.

She said the Naval Information Warfighting Development Center, much like its surface counterpart, is poring over data from the Houthi missile and drone shoot-downs and has pushed out updated tactics for those areas the information warfare community is responsible for.

This includes increasing battlespace awareness so a ship commander has as much time as possible to react to an incoming threat — though McLane said that, due to the confined geography in the Red Sea and the quick speeds of the anti-ship cruise and ballistic missiles, there might only be 60 to 90 seconds between when the Houthis launch a missile and the destroyer has to shoot it down.

Despite the ongoing and challenging threats, McLane said the force has what it needs, though he’d like to see industry speed development of energy weapons so the ships can shoot down missiles and drones without expending their expensive Standard Missiles and other munitions.

“A layered defense across the strike group is the way to go for now, and then hopefully with industry’s acceleration of directed energy in all forms, lasers and microwaves, we will be able to get something sooner onto our ships,” McLane said.

The autonomous MQ-4C Triton intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting drone can fly for more than 24 hours at a time and at altitudes greater than 10 miles, with a range of more than 8,000 nautical miles. Sensors aboard can cue onto electronic signals and adversary communications, and that information can be relayed to warships and other aircraft.

Vice Adm. Craig Clapperton, the Navy’s leader of Fleet Cyber Command, told attendees at the West conference in San Diego the Triton’s signals and geospatial intelligence capabilities are of particular interest to him and his teams. The drone achieved initial operating capability last year, following use in the Indo-Pacific.

Clapperton expects improved information-sharing across the service as Triton usage continues. Northrop has delivered at least five of the uncrewed systems to the service.

“If Triton is on an INDOPACOM orbit, it doesn’t just communicate with Naval Information Operations Command Pacific in Hawaii,” he said. “They’re communicating with Whidbey Island, they’re communicating with Task Force 1060 in NIOC Maryland. They’re communicating with Task Force 1050.”

Northrop last year said it was able to shuttle information between its Triton and simulated battlefield assets, including an F-35, an E-2D Advanced Hawkeye, destroyers and carrier strike groups. The connectivity was made possible via a “gateway” that hooked into the drone’s onboard radar and advanced computing.

To stay ahead of China and Russia, the U.S. military is attempting to dissolve the membranes that have long compartmentalized the services, their databases and their weapons. The multibillion-dollar push, referred to as Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control, envisions any sensor feeding any shooter the data he or she needs — meaning responses to foreign aggression will likely be quicker, more efficient and less constrained by geography.

“Around the globe, as these Tritons expand their orbit, they will be communicating with all of my NIOCs and bringing, really, a federated approach to that battlespace awareness and how we can help the warfighter have a better understanding of what’s going on in their area of responsibility,” Clapperton said.

In testing on the East Coast in December, a Martac-supplied and Northrop-outfitted T38 ship autonomously identified, chased and surveilled a target moving through the Chesapeake Bay.

Now, company officials told C4ISRNET, energy has shifted to getting Project Scion products ready for action at the Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International’s Xponential 2024 in California in April as well as the Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division’s Silent Swarm in Michigan in July. The former is focused on collaborative autonomy and applications beyond national security, the latter on electromagnetic warfare and digital deception.

“We’ve been working since December, the two months since we demoed, on taking those next steps,” Dennis Grignon, a business development manager at Northrop, said in an interview. “We did this on a single platform, but we could scale our package down to a very small USV, so we could repeat this.”

Rebellion to supply software for Navy’s secretive Project Overmatch

The experimentation and investment at the Virginia-based company come amid surging U.S. Navy and Coast Guard interest in uncrewed technologies.

Former Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday sought a hybrid fleet, with one update to his so-called Navigation Plan pitching 373 manned ships collaborating with 150 uncrewed vessels. The Coast Guard similarly published an unmanned road map last year. It described a force augmented by robotic aids, ready to counter unlawful activity and domestic threats.

Meanwhile, the Department of Defense in August launched the Replicator initiative, meant to field thousands of uncrewed systems in 18-24 months to overcome the perceived mass of China.

Project Scion pools technologies from other domains, such as aerial drones, ground robotics and smart buoys, to produce payloads that can turn platforms into “true combat-and-surveillance systems for our customers,” according to Grignon.

Northrop, which is exhibiting its tech at the West naval conference this week in San Diego, builds the Fire Scout autonomous helicopter, the Triton unmanned aerial system and more.

“The flexibility with our payload allows it to be programmed for multiple missions,” he said. “It’s part of a bigger-picture need for doing more with fewer resources, and that’s the gap we’re trying to fill here.”

Manpower, knowhow and other resources will be strained in the future fights U.S. defense leaders are girding for. A war with China in the Indo-Pacific would put serious pressure on Navy vessels, the sailors aboard and their logistics chains.

Robo-ships could act as eyes, ears, supply shuttles and even firepower where they would otherwise be lacking.

“We’re receiving the data, processing and analyzing it, and then taking an action on that data, based on commander’s intent,” Matt O’Driscoll, a Northrop chief engineer for maritime systems and integration, said of Project Scion and its December trial.

“The effectors that were onboard our vessels were just cameras,” he added. “But going forward, that could be anything from an electronic attack like jamming, or cyberattack, or it could be kinetic with a human in the loop.”

Development and deployment of semi-autonomous or fully autonomous weapons is governed by what’s known as Directive 3000.09, originally signed a decade ago and updated last year. The Defense Department directive is meant to reduce the risks of failed autonomy and arms. It does not apply to cyber.

Northrop is the third largest defense contractor in the world when ranked by revenue, according to Defense News Top 100 analysis. It made $32.4 billion in 2022 and $31.4 billion in 2021.

The Feb. 9 ceremony also involved a flight of the Akinci, according to the Azeri government. The chief technology officer of Akinci manufacturer Baykar, Selcuk Bayraktar, posted images of the event on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Attendees included Bayraktar, Azeri President Ilham Aliyev and his son Heydar Aliyev, as well as other high-ranking officers.

The training facility is for UAV operators, while the hanger will serve as a maintenance headquarters.

Azerbaijan had quietly purchased the Akinci. In March 2022, Baykar CEO Haluk Bayraktar said during a news conference that three nations were interested in buying drone type. According to the company, the first group of Azeri pilots for the Akinci completed training in October 2022.

In April 2023, Baykar and Azerbaijan signed a memorandum of understanding for the construction of Baykar drones in the country. Azerbaijan previously used TB2 combat drones in its war against Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

The Akinci is a high-altitude, long-endurance drone with a maximum takeoff weight of 6,000 kilograms (12,228 pounds), compared to the TB2′s 700 kilograms (1,543 pounds). The Akinci’s 1,500-kilogram payload is 10 times more than that of the TB2.

The Akinci can also fly higher than the TB2 at around 30,000-40,000 feet max. The Akinci also uses a wide range of ammunition and missiles, including MAM –L, MAM-C, Cirit, L-UMTAS, Bozok, SOM-A, and the Mark 81/82/83 bomb series.

The service agreed to pay $75 million for 600 of the ground-launched, radar-guided Coyote 2C devices, it said Feb. 9.

The effort was led by its Program Executive Office for Missiles and Space, tasked with developing overhead defenses, long-range rocket systems, directed-energy lasers and more. Using a method known as rapid acquisition authority, the Army is expected to secure the counter-drone munitions in less than 30 days. Other, more traditional means can take months or years.

While the Army already deploys some Coyote systems in mobile and stationary setups — in what’s known as the Low, slow, small, unmanned aircraft Integrated Defeat System, or LIDS — this latest purchase marks growth in demand and production. It comes on the heels of a contracting notice describing the military’s intent to obtain and deploy thousands of Coyote interceptors and hundreds of their associated launchers and radars in the next five fiscal years.

Houthis, Russians wield same Iranian-supplied drones, DIA studies show

“The U.S. Army has a need to develop, produce and maintain countermeasures against enemy armed and intelligence-gathering UASs operating at various speeds and altitudes, which are targeting both U.S. and their allies’ interests at home and abroad,” the government notice stated.

The deal with RTX was inked days before Iran-backed militants killed three soldiers and injured dozens more with a one-way attack drone at the Tower 22 installation in Jordan, near the Syrian border. The strike underscored the pressing need to bat down drones, which can be assembled with off-the-shelf parts and can be relatively cheap.

RTX, formerly Raytheon Technologies, is the second largest defense contractor in the world when ranked by defense-related revenue. The Virginia-based company made $39 billion in 2022 and $41.8 billion in 2021, according to Defense News Top 100 analysis.

The order has an estimated value of $11 million (€10.2 million), according to a notice published this week by the Tenders Electronic Daily website, an online repository for European public procurements.

Little information was provided on the requirements for the autonomous underwater vehicle, or AUV, apart that it is lightweight and suitable to carry out operations in shallow waters.

The definition of a shallow-water AUV varies in terms of the depths it can reach, however, this class of system is typically designed to be used at depths of around 50 meters (164 feet). This is in contrast to deep-water AUVs, which are generally made to perform missions at depths of more than 2,500m.

Kongsberg Maritime’s AUV is in the Hugin systems, of which the Italian Navy is already a customer. In an interview given over the summer, Italian Rear Admiral Gianguido Manganaro, head of the Command of the Mine Countermeasures Forces, said that they have operated the Hugin 1000 since 2013, and that a second 3,000m capable one was set to be delivered by the end of 2023.

A report published last year by the Italian think-tank Istituto Affari Internazionali further stated that the Italian Navy already uses the Hugin 1000 and 3000, which have respective maximum depths of 1,000m and 3,000m.

Based on this information, the latest contract for a light AUV, could be the third HUGIN procured by the country’s naval forces.

One of the most recently developed variants is the Hugin Edge, described on the manufacturer’s website, as the smallest and most lightweight member of the Hugin family that possesses an autonomous launch and recovery system.

As part of the Italian Navy’s Future Combat Naval System 2035 vision, unmanned systems are listed as a procurement priority.

An Italian company that has doubled down on efforts to advance their naval systems is Fincantieri NextTech, a subsidiary of the Italian group. In 2019, it launched its surface advanced naval drone, dubbed SAND, as a multi-role unmanned surface vehicle.

“Over the past year, a launch and recovery system capable of launching and retrieving underwater unmanned vehicles for naval mine warfare, anti-submarine warfare and critical seabed infrastructure protection was integrated onto SAND,” the company said in an email statement to Defense News.

There is no defined deadline for when the platform will become operational. However, a roadmap of improvements for 2024-2025 has been identified, as market demand for such systems is expected to increase as militaries further define their requirements.

“We have seen USVs become the protagonist in 2023 in new and unexpected wars like Ukraine, and although major navies and industries started developing this kind of technology years ago, the market is relatively young,” the statement said. “In 2024 and years to follow, we will see an increase in demand for interoperability and related improvements in autonomous capabilities.”

The effort, dubbed Sandtrap, produced prototypes that improved the speed and accuracy of unmanned aerial system countermeasures, according to a Feb. 9 announcement from CENTCOM, the Pentagon’s combatant command whose area of responsibility includes Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

Downing a drone or other aerial threat requires spotting, classifying, tracking and targeting it in a process that is increasingly digital.

The U.S. military has in recent months faced a barrage of drone and missile attacks, including in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. A one-way drone strike at the Tower 22 installation, near the al-Tanf garrison and Syrian border, killed three soldiers in January. Iranian-supplied militants were blamed.

Houthis, Russians wield same Iranian-supplied drones, DIA studies show

Schuyler Moore, the chief technology officer at CENTCOM, in a statement said the command is committed to “leveraging every talented individual, technical solution and innovative process available” to advance counter-drone efforts.

“The Sandtrap hackathon combined all three: exceptional coders, brilliant software prototypes, and a repeatable process that can give us creative solutions in the future,” she added. Moore previously served as the chief strategy officer for Task Force 59, an outfit designed to quickly fold artificial intelligence and uncrewed systems into Navy operations.

Additional events similar to Sandtrap are expected going forward. Hackathons are organized to bring together specialists — developers, data scientists, software engineers and others — who then quickly improve upon existing programs or build novel ones.

Army Gen. Michael Kurilla, commander of CENTCOM, in a statement said the Sandtrap endeavor brought “new and creative solutions to the table.” Future hackathons, he added, “will drive better solutions to critical missions and advance data-centric warfighting for the command.”

Both forces have used unmanned aerial vehicles to attack from afar and modernize their arsenals. Since October, the U.S. Navy has shot down dozens of one-way drones bound for the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, while the Ukrainian military many miles away contends with what has been described as a drone war in Eastern Europe.

The Defense Intelligence Agency this week published a report documenting how Iran arms Houthi militants, highlighting among other weaponry the Waid 1 and 2 drones. The DIA said they share distinctive features — pitot tubes, fuselages, stubby nose cones — with Iran’s Shahed-131 and -136, which have a range of more than 1,000 miles.

Another DIA study published in August said Russia’s Geran-1 and -2, although rebranded, were of Iranian origin for similar reasons. The findings were based on retrieved parts as well as visual comparison of publicly available images. Parades and other military showcases provide analysts a chance to scour foreign firepower.

“The Waid 2 wing stabilizers displayed by the Houthis in Yemen are consistent with the size and shape of the winglets on the Shahed-136 displayed in Iran and debris from the Geran-2 — the Russian name for the Shahed-136 — recovered after Russian attacks in Ukraine,” the DIA assessment stated.

Asked about the proliferation of Iranian drones among two different forces in two different regions, a DIA spokesperson said all the information the agency has “on this topic is in the report and the accompanying release.” The agency, based at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling just south of the Capitol, is a principal source of foreign intelligence for military endeavors.

Stateside leadership has expressed increasing concern about Iran’s influence abroad. U.S. and allied forces have interdicted more than 18 Iranian smuggling vessels since 2015, seizing ballistic missile components, UAVs, anti-tank guided missiles, firearms, rockets and more.

Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh on Feb. 6 told reporters that the department has “been very clear that Iran does supply the Houthis, and other [Iranian Revolutionary Guard]-backed militias, with weapons and different capabilities, including UAVs.”

She declined to comment on the specifics of DIA’s assessment.

A one-way drone attack last month that killed three U.S. soldiers at the Tower 22 installation, near al-Tanf garrison and the Syrian border, was blamed on Tehran-backed militants. Washington responded by hitting more than 85 targets linked to the Revolutionary Guard, including command-and-control headquarters, intelligence centers, and drone and ammunition storage sites.

The strikes featured long-range B-1 bombers.

The award comes after DIU selected the Dive-LD platform to perform in a “swim-off” last year that put commercially available large unmanned underwater vehicles through an obstacle course to assess their maturity and applicability to conduct “distributed, long-range, persistent underwater sensing and payload delivery in contested environment,” according to a Feb. 8 Anduril news release.

DIU is the Pentagon’s commercial innovation hub.

Anduril said the U.S. Navy selected it for a follow-on contract that allows operational units to borrow the unmanned vehicles for experiments or buy them as a routine tool for their missions. The company could not disclose information about the value or duration of the contract, which was awarded through DIU’s Commercial Solutions Opening process.

Anduril’s chief strategy officer, Chris Brose, told Defense News the company had worked on maturing and demonstrating the Dive-LD vehicle for the last two years, but the contract now provides a mechanism to get the drone into the hands of sailors across varied geographies and unit types so they can “start solving a lot of different problems across the seabed and undersea domain.”

The contract creates direct access between Anduril and operators. A unit that has never worked with an autonomous underwater vehicle may want to experiment with one for a couple weeks or months, while another unit with a more refined concept for how they’d use the Dive-LD vehicle may want to buy several right off the bat.

Brose said the contract allows for whatever the operators prefer, as well as payload integration and other engineering to get the units a tailor-made system to meet their specific needs.

The Navy has struggled to bring large unmanned underwater vehicles to the fleet.

It kicked off a Snakehead large-diameter unmanned underwater vehicle program in 2017, though the original research program dates to before 2015. The first Snakehead prototype wasn’t christened until 2022, and the Navy and Congress agreed to cancel the program later that year. However, it’s been somewhat resurrected as a market research effort to identify commercially available technology that could be useful to the fleet.

The Navy also pursued an Orca extra-large UUV program, first selecting Boeing as one of two companies for a 2017 design contract and then selecting the firm as the sole winner of a 2019 contract to build four prototypes. The program has seen developmental and manufacturing delays. The company in December delivered a pre-prototype test asset but has not yet completed and delivered any of the prototypes on contract.

Brose said the Dive-LD — which Anduril acquired in early 2022 when it bought Dive Technologies ­— was designed for manufacturability, payload integration and artificial intelligence-powered smart operations.

The vehicle is made using advanced manufacturing processes, and the outer shell is 3D printed. Brose said this means the company can scale up production to meet demand under this DIU contract and others that may follow.

He referred to this DIU effort as a “breakthrough opportunity” that’s led to Anduril “really beginning to invest and facilitize for larger-scale production, which is something we’re doing in other parts of the business.”

He could not speculate how many Dive-LD vehicles the company might build for Defense Department customers under this DIU contract, but he called it “a really significant next step” for the company.

Because of the advanced manufacturing processes, Anduril can easily redesign pieces of the modular unmanned vehicle to accommodate a payload, reshape or resize the whole vehicle to fit a certain need, and more, based on what customers want.

“I think the excitement for us is the ability to really start doing the things at scale that the vehicle was designed to do,” he said.

In addition to this contract with DIU, Anduril signed a three-year agreement with Australia in 2022 to create something akin to an Orca XLUUV. The company, the Royal Australian Navy, and the Australian government’s Defence Science and Technology Group — in a $100 million co-funding effort — will design, develop and manufacture the extra-large autonomous undersea vehicles.

Global Industrial Defence Solutions describes the Ranger as a runway-independent tactical UAV. It was designed for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance missions, as well as for an artillery fire correction role.

Its multi-sensor gimbal payload incorporates a high-definition, electro-optical, medium-wave infrared sensor, and its laser range finder allows it to carry out daytime and nighttime operations. Its line-of-sight control is 100 kilometers (62 miles).

GIDS touts the drone as able to operate autonomously with artificial intelligence-enabled payloads.

Four small rotors provide vertical lift, while a larger pusher rotor delivering forward propulsion.

GIDS was also promoting its Fatah II guided multi-launch rocket system, first tested in December 2023. The export version has a range of 290 kilometers.

GIDS told Defense News that its presence at the defense expo is its largest to date as it attempts to secure more export deals, with the offer of local production as a sweetener. It has already sold products to Peru and has broken into the African market.

It is also keen to expand business with Pakistan’s close allies. On the first day of the show, the organization signed an agreement with Turkey, but a GIDS spokesman would not offer specifics when asked by Defense News.

By leveraging their resources, technologies and production capacity, the U.S. and its allies can help Ukraine meet this challenge.

In addition to artillery shells, one of Ukraine’s most urgent battlefield needs is an enormous number of one-way attack unmanned aerial vehicles, also known as “kamikaze drones.” First and foremost, this means first-person view — or “FPV” — drones, combining cheap commercially available quadcopters rigged with munitions. Both Russia and Ukraine widely employ FPVs as improvised loitering munitions used to attack vehicles and personnel at or near the front line. But while the Ukrainians adopted FPV drones first, Russia now has the edge thanks to its advantage in production capacity.

With Western-provided shells currently in short supply, Ukraine will need to lean even more heavily on FPVs as a partial replacement for artillery. The Ukrainians are making many thousands of FPV drones every month, but they’re still well short of Kyiv’s goal of 1 million per year. Although Ukraine has received some loitering munitions from the United States and other Western countries, they’re far more expensive and aren’t produced at anywhere near the sufficient scale.

Ukraine also needs more long-range attack drones designed to strike targets far behind the frontlines. Here, too, Moscow currently has an advantage thanks to its Iranian-provided Shahed UAVs, which Russia began producing itself last year. According to Ukrainian intelligence, Russia can now make as many as 350 Shaheds per month.

Although U.S. companies don’t yet mass-produce anything like the Shahed, Ukrainian industry has begun making a variety of long-range attack drones and continues to develop new designs. Kyiv’s forces have repeatedly employed such UAVs to strike airbases and other deep targets both in occupied territory and inside Russia.

If Ukraine can sufficiently scale production, it could beat Russia at its own game. In 2024, Kyiv aims to make 11,000 one-way attack UAVs with a range of at least 300 kilometers. These drones can supplement Ukraine’s limited stocks of Western-supplied missiles.

Ukraine has an innovative and rapidly developing UAV industry, but a lack of resources is slowing progress. Western assistance can help Ukraine scale production and obtain access to advanced technologies and components. Europe intends to do its part. Latvia is leading a UAV coalition for Ukraine, while Lithuania has expressed interest in helping Ukraine produce drones. But the United States has an important role to play, too.

So, what’s to be done?

First, the Biden administration and Congress should incentivize U.S. defense companies to partner with Ukrainian firms. One option is the transfer of Ukrainian intellectual property to American companies for production at scale in the United States. U.S. firms could also invest in localization of production in Ukraine. This sort of cooperation is already beginning to happen, but U.S. government support could help it blossom.

In concert, the United States and Ukraine should consider establishing a working group that brings together government, military, and industry officials focused on unmanned systems. This forum would help institutionalize key relationships and promote defense-industrial cooperation. It would also benefit the U.S. military and American companies by helping them absorb lessons learned from the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Kyiv, for its part, is eager to engage in such a forum.

In the meantime, Congress should consider permitting Kyiv to spend a portion of its U.S. security assistance funding inside Ukraine to procure UAVs that American industry currently struggles to supply in sufficient quantities. This approach, after all, would not be some dramatic departure from current U.S. practice with other democratic partners.

Foreign Military Financing, or FMF, provides partner nations with grants or loans with which to procure U.S. defense articles, services, or training. Washington pledged over $1.6 billion in FMF for Ukraine during the 2022 and 2023 fiscal years. In its supplemental request for fiscal year 2024, the Biden administration asked Congress for $7.2 billion in FMF funding, including $1.7 billion for Kyiv and other European countries affected by Russia’s war in Ukraine. The rest would go to Israel and Indo-Pacific countries, including Taiwan.

Unlike Israel and Taiwan, however, Congress has not authorized Ukraine to use FMF funding for “offshore procurement.” Kyiv must spend all its FMF money in the United States, whereas Jerusalem and Taipei can use some of their U.S.-provided funds for purchases from their own defense industries.

As a general rule, there are good reasons for requiring partners to spend FMF money in the United States. Foreign demand for American-made weapons spurs the U.S. economy, employs Americans, builds valuable defense-industrial capacity, and strengthens political support for arming key partners to deter and defeat common adversaries.

Sometimes, however, U.S. interests are best served by making an exception to the rule. Ukraine’s urgent need for large quantities of cheap drones is just such instance. If and when Congress finally passes the supplemental, it should take that opportunity to revisit this issue.

With this additional funding, Kyiv not only could buy more UAVs but could also swap out Chinese-made drones and components for Ukrainian-made alternatives. In addition, Ukraine could scale up its integration of more expensive features, such as thermal imaging cameras, jamming resistance, home-on-jam capability, and machine vision. This would give Kyiv a boost in the ever-evolving race between Russian and Ukrainian drone technology and provide an offset for Russia’s superiority in electronic warfare and proliferation of small counter-drone jammers.

Vladimir Putin wants to weaken and control Ukraine. If he succeeds, Europeans and Americans will regret it for years to come. Washington and its allies can avoid that outcome by providing Kyiv with additional security assistance, which should include ensuring Ukrainian forces have the drones they need to fight Putin’s unprovoked invasion.

John Hardie is deputy director of the Russia Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where Bradley Bowman serves as senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power.

“Our acquisition of Malloy Aeronautics is part of our ongoing strategy to develop and invest in breakthrough technologies which augment our existing capabilities ,” Simon Barnes, group managing director of BAE’s air sector business, said in the news release.

The purchase, for which no price was given, follows a two-year partnership between the companies to develop the all-electric quadcopter T-650, with a maximum payload of 300 kilograms (661 pounds) and a top range of 30 kilometers (19 miles). The British government previously supplied the Ukrainian military with smaller versions of the quadcopter for logistics.

Other customers include the U.K. and U.S. militaries. Malloy’s American partner Survice Engineering is under contract to supply the U.S. Marine Corps with the Malloy-made TRV-150C drone for tactical resupply.

The T-650 is in the development phase and mainly targeted at providing unmanned logistics capabilities. But last year, the system showed it has the potential to become a weapons platform when a slightly smaller variant — a technology demonstrator known as the T-600 — carried and released an inert 200-kilogram Sting Ray torpedo during a NATO exercise.

It also has the potential to serve as a flying ambulance. Last year, BAE showed a concept casualty evacuation pod for the T-650 at the DSEI defense show in London.

BAE said its Malloy operation will remain in Berkshire, near London, and become an arm of its FalconWorks air sector research and development operation. Malloy employs about 80 people.

As part of BAE’s strategy to break into the unmanned sector, the company in 2021 acquired Prismatic, a British developer of solar-powered, high-altitude, long-endurance drones. And last year, BAE announced it was considering a partnership with U.K. defense contractor QinetiQ to collaborate on aerial drones and mission management systems. Those talks are still underway, according to a BAE official.

The U.S. State Department on Thursday approved a nearly $4 billion drone sale to India, a deal that emerged during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington last year.

Congress has received the notification for India’s pending purchase of 31 MQ-9B SkyGuardian aircraft made by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems. The notification triggers a 30-day congressional review period on Capitol Hill.

“The U.S.-India defense partnership has seen significant growth over the past decade,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said a press briefing on Wednesday, noting the sale “offers significant potential to further advance strategic technology cooperation with India and military cooperation in the region.”

The Biden administration has sought to court India as part of its efforts to counter China in the Indo-Pacific region while prying it away from Russia, New Delhi’s leading arms supplier. India also seeks to develop its own indigenous defense-industrial base. A December Congressional Research Service report noted that India is the world’s largest arms importer by value.

In addition to the drone sale, Modi’s visit to Washington in June resulted in a spate of other agreements, such as a deal between General Electric and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. to jointly produce fighter jet engines.

Micron Technology, an American semiconductor firm, also pledged to spend upward of $2.75 billion on construction of an assembly and test facility in India. In addition, the U.S. and India kick-started negotiations for a reciprocal defense procurement arrangement to coordinate the exchange and development of military technology.

In May 2022, the two countries launched the U.S.-India initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology to enhance cooperation in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and semiconductors.

Among them was Elbit Systems Emirates, the Israeli defense company’s branch in the United Arab Emirates, established in 2021. The business showed off a mock-up of its Seagull unmanned surface vessel. The system has been on the market for several years, and the company has sold it to an undisclosed Asia-Pacific navy in its anti-submarine warfare configuration under a contract worth $56 million.

Elbit Systems said it’s working on improvements for its Seagull USV amid tension in the Red Sea, according to a company official.

“We are primarily focused on making it bigger — up to 17-18 meters — more flexible, and increasing its endurance at sea from six to 10 days,” Alon Emir, a naval systems expert at Elbit Systems, told Defense News.

The Seagull took part in the 2022 Digital Horizon event to test underwater tech and enhance regional maritime awareness. The U.S. Navy’s Task Force 59 ran the exercise in Bahrain.

Emir believes the ongoing Red Sea shipping crisis, which has seen Houthi rebels in Yemen attack ships passing through the waterway, may be a catalyst for the USV market.

Hostilities began in November when the Iran-backed Houthi militant group launched a series of attacks on cargo ships and tankers navigating in the area, causing considerable disruptions to global shopping. In response, the United States and the United Kingdom have conducted airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen.

“Everybody is watching what is happening in the Red Sea. A lot of countries are currently troubled with issues surrounding attacks carried out by unmanned underwater vehicles, and want a good USV to detect possible threats,” Emir said.

The Emirati defense conglomerate Edge Group is also dipping its toes into the underwater sector. The company has primarily focused on airborne and ground-based autonomous capabilities.

Speaking to Defense News at the trade show, Faisal Al Bannai, who chairs Edge Group’s board of directors, said the company “100%” has plans in the unmanned maritime sector that it will reveal “very soon.”

Following the normalization of ties between the UAE and Israel in 2020, the countries deepened their defense partnership and particularly found common ground in a desire to counter Iranian naval threats.

In 2021, Edge Group signed an agreement with Israel Aerospace Industries to co-develop a USV, which they unveiled last February at the maritime security fair NAVDEX in the UAE. The craft was designed to carry out surveillance, reconnaissance and mine-detection missions.

USV vendors are pitching their systems’ cheaper costs in comparison to other expensive technologies that carry out similar missions.

“In comparing the Seagull to an anti-submarine warfare helicopter, for instance, you can probably buy five Seagulls for the price of a single helicopter that can be just as effective and multipurpose,” Emir said.

Edge’s chairman shared a similar perspective.

“Let’s say you have a cargo ship flowing through the Red Sea. Trying to put manned patrol boats that can escort it is an expensive exercise,” he said. “But if you have your USV that is unmanned, that possesses a weapon and ISR capability, when that other boat is coming in to threaten the cargo ship, the USV can deal with it very effectively and is less costly.”

The government’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration announced the work Jan. 25 amid efforts to bolster surveillance of North Korea.

The government inked the procurement deal Dec. 21 with prime contractor Korean Air Aerospace Division, plus subsystem partners LIG Nex1 and Hanwha Systems. According to DAPA, the 471.7 billion won (U.S. $353.6 million) contract will see Korean Air “sequentially deliver” an undisclosed quantity of unmanned aircraft to the South Korean Air Force. Delivery is expected to continue into 2028.

Korean Air refers to this aircraft as the KUS-FS, whereas DAPA calls it a medium-altitude unmanned aerial vehicle.

According to specifications released by the original equipment manufacturer, the platform has a 25-meter (82-foot) wingspan and length of 13 meters (43 feet). A Korean Air engineer told Defense News at the Seoul ADEX trade show in October that the aircraft’s endurance exceeds 30 hours. A Hanwha Aerospace-made 1,200-horsepower turboprop engine offers a cruise speed of approximately 190 knots (219 mph).

Equipped with satellite communications technology as well as Ku-band and ultra-high frequency-band line-of-sight data links, operators can control the drone from either a fixed-site ground control station or a trailer-mounted, 40-foot container for greater mobility.

The aircraft includes a LIG Nex1 X-band synthetic aperture radar, and can perform intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; electronic warfare; signals intelligence missions; and communications relay in midair.

Four underwing hardpoints are visible on the prototype, indicating the unarmed drone may evolve into a combat-capable UAV.

DAPA said in a news release that the platform is South Korea’s first domestically developed strategic UAV. “It is expected that the Korean military’s independent surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities will advance dramatically in the future,” the agency stated, given the drone can perform real-time monitoring of neighboring North Korea.

Work on this project began 16 years ago under the aegis of the Agency for Defense Development. The UAV’s maiden flight occurred in 2012, with a Korean Air official telling Defense News that it has since undergone “hundreds of test flights.” Testing was supposed to wrap up in 2019, but the schedule was delayed several years to ensure the drone’s reliablility before it entered service, the representative explained.

Development concluded in March 2022, at which time it was determined to be suitable for operations. Governmental approval to proceed with production was subsequently granted last August.

“We expect that the mass production project for the MUAV will improve our military’s surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, and contribute to the increase in defense industry exports in the future,” Kim Tae-gon, director of DAPA’s advanced technology division, said in the agency’s release.

Indeed, the drone’s export potential is important to the government, although DAPA suggested other national agencies will eventually operate modified variants, specifically the Korea Forest Service for monitoring fires and the Korea Coast Guard. However, an industry source told Defense News that such agencies do not have enough money to buy and operate such sophisticated systems.

While the department investigates what type of drone slipped past air defenses and hit a desert installation known as Tower 22 near Syria, preliminary evidence suggests the attack was the workings of Kataib Hezbollah, according to Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh. The group emerged in the early 2000s and has since been blamed for violence across Iraq.

“In terms of attribution for the attack, we know this is an [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps]-backed militia. It has the footprints of Kataib Hezbollah, but not making a final assessment on that,” she said during a Jan. 29 briefing at the Pentagon. “Our teams are continuing to do the analysis, but we know Iran is behind it.”

The Iranian government denied involvement but has long supplied combatants in advancement of its own goals.

Assets from the regime have been used by Houthi rebels in Yemen to harass ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, deployed by Russian forces in their continued invasion of Ukraine and were reportedly exported to Ethiopia and Sudan.

“There are a whole host of airframes and systems that Iran-backed militias in Iraq have been parading for the past few years that show telltale signs of Iranian support,” Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank, told C4ISRNET. “Via these parades, we have seen Iran-backed groups tip their hand as to new capabilities made available by their patron in Tehran.”

Amid Red Sea clashes, Navy leaders ask: Where are our ship lasers?

Such armaments include reusable Mohajer unmanned aerial vehicles capable of dropping bombs and smaller one-way attack drones such as the Shahed series.

The Defense Intelligence Agency, a principal source of foreign intelligence for U.S. military endeavors, in August showed reporters charred remains of Shahed-101 and Shahed-131 drones and at least one defused warhead with a shaped charge, meant to punch through armor, and fragmenting cubes designed to harm personnel. The pieces were recovered from fighting well beyond Iran’s borders and assembled stateside for accountability.

“As has been the case in other theaters, one-way attack UAVs, popularly known as suicide drones, function as the poor man’s cruise missile. This means a lower and slower threat with a different flight profile compared to rockets and missiles that can take various angles of attack,” Taleblu said. “They are also cheaper to produce and exemplify the phrase ‘quantity has a quality of its own.’”

The attack on Tower 22, close to the al-Tanf garrison, is among the latest in a barrage targeting U.S. forces. The Defense Department has since mid-October logged at least 165 attacks in the region, including 66 in Iraq and 98 in Syria.

What casts the Tower 22 bombardment in such sharp relief is the fact that it “was so tragically successful,” according to Jonathan Lord, a senior fellow and director of the Middle East Security Program at the Center for a New American Security think tank. That difference could be seen as a significant escalation in an area already inflamed.

“I think it also foot-stomps the fact that these militias have been trying to kill Americans for months. These aren’t shots across the bow, these aren’t warnings or demonstrations of might. They’re trying to kill people,” Lord said in an interview. “I think what is under debate right now is who’s going to bear the brunt of that response, and where will that be borne.”

The U.S. military has successfully countered overhead threats like rocket fire and explosive unmanned systems for months, including in the Red Sea. The guided-missile destroyer Carney in December batted down 14 drones that U.S. Central Command described as a wave.

In some cases, exemplified by the DIA display, scraps can be retrieved and studied. Engines, exhaust pipes, wing stabilizers, circuitry, landing gear and more can all aid experts in identifying make, model or origin.

“There may be recoverable parts. There could be radar reflections the military has that might give them a better sense. They might have more signature information,” Lord said. “I’m certain that CENTCOM knows, exactly, where this originated.”

The Wall Street Journal reported the drone that hit Tower 22 may have been mistaken for an American drone that was in the air at the same time. Defense officials said the circumstances are under investigation.