Low-cost drones are challenging the balance between inexpensive weapons and traditional military assets. The U.S. Department of Defense is asking industry to develop defenses against uncrewed systems that can operate across air, land, below ground, sea, and undersea environments.
Why inexpensive drones have drawn attention
Recent conflicts, including the war in Ukraine, have shown how autonomous drones can threaten equipment that is far more expensive. One example cited is a $2,000 DJI drone from China taking down a Russian T-90 tank worth millions. That contrast helps explain why the Pentagon is looking for ways to counter these systems.
The concern is not limited to a single type of drone or battlefield. The Defense Department's Research and Engineering Under Secretary has called on industry to help develop countermeasures for threats across multiple domains. The department's need statement says the threat to U.S. forces is expanding in domestic and international regions.
What the Pentagon wants countermeasures to do
The request describes a broad set of defensive functions. These include limiting an unmanned system's ability to detect targets, creating barriers that interfere with navigation, and using kinetic, directed-energy, or control-link defenses against physical and electronic attacks.
The department also wants ways to assess whether those approaches are effective. That matters because countering a drone involves more than deploying a weapon: defenders need to identify the threat and understand whether their response can disrupt it.
- Detection: Sensors using AI and machine learning could help identify drones faster across domains.
- Active defense: Autonomous systems could target an adversary's navigation or onboard AI capabilities.
- Passive defeat: Defenses could exploit weaknesses in unmanned systems' AI algorithms or conceal potential targets.
- Assessment: Tools could help measure how well defensive approaches perform.
There is no settled answer yet
The Pentagon is exploring options, but it has not identified a perfect solution. The article points to the Epirus Leonidas, an experimental system from General Dynamics Land Systems that uses high-powered microwaves to take down drones. It is one example of counter-drone work, rather than evidence that the broader challenge has been resolved.
The range of capabilities under consideration reflects the difficulty of the problem. Detection, navigation disruption, electronic defenses, and physical defeat address different parts of a threat. A system that works in one situation may not answer every need across the domains named by the Defense Department.
Industry has a role in the next steps
Industry and defense officials plan to meet in July to discuss counter-drone solutions and development strategies. The meeting is part of a wider effort to turn the department's stated needs into practical defenses as inexpensive, AI-powered drones become a significant part of future battlefields.
For now, the Pentagon's approach is to seek a mix of sensors, autonomous defenses, and methods that can exploit vulnerabilities in unmanned systems. The challenge is to make those options useful against threats that can appear in different environments and rely on both physical capabilities and onboard technology.