The US military and its partners are expanding their use of drones, turning to them for logistical purposes like resupply while expanding their abilities to defend against enemy drones.
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The Pentagon is getting better at stopping enemy drones — and testing its own for delivering gear to the battlefield
The US is looking for cheap, portable devices to counter drones and for unmanned aerial vehicles that can move supplies around quickly and safely.
A member of the Iraqi federal police carries a destroyed drone belonging to ISIS militants, in Mosul, March 19, 2017.
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The latest piece of drone-related equipment is a 5-pound radar-gun-like device used to jam drones in remote areas or during patrols.
In April, the US Army's Rapid Equipment Force purchased 50 of the "Dronebuster," as it's called, which starts at $30,000.
It's outfitted with five custom antennae and a "technique generator" that reduces the amount of battery power needed to produce a jamming signal, which in turns allows the device to be smaller and more portable.
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Col. Lanier Ward, who leads the REF, told Army Times that his unit's goal was to get the Dronebuster to personnel in the field as soon as possible. He said the REF averages 140 days from requirement to delivery.
Iraqi forces have already deployed US-supplied "jammers" to frustrate ISIS' profligate use of commercial drones to attack Iraqi troops in and around Mosul.
"The Americans have brought in a very advanced machine to" western Mosul, Maj. Gen. Najim al-Jabbouri Jabouri told Defense Tech in early March. "It is like a big vehicle. ISIS can no longer send even one drone into the sky."
The commander of Iraq's elite Counter Terror Service told Defense Tech that his unit had recorded 72 ISIS drone flights on the first day of operations in western Mosul, which began on February 19.
With the deployment of US-provided anti-drone technology, he said, ISIS drone flights had dropped to zero over a five-day period at the start of March.
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The US Army is experimenting with other mobile anti-drone weapons to counter the growing use of cheap, commercially available drones that have popped up in conflict zones.
Earlier this month, during the 10-day Maneuver Fires Integrated Experiment in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, the Mobile High-Energy Laser, or MEHEL — mounted on a Stryker combat vehicle — downed a drone without firing a shot or making a sound.
The laser was one of three anti-drone systems being evaluated during the exercise.
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