Modern air defense systems face new difficulties as a result of the growing use of cheap, mas sproduced loitering munitions and one-way attack drones. Coordinated drone swarms have proven capable of overwhelming conventional ground-based defense systems, which were initially built to fend off more sophisticated cruise missiles or manned military aircraft. These new threats are distinguished by their low cost, ease of manufacture, and capacity to seriously inflict (psychological) damage. Low-cost drones are the most concerning tactical development since the rise of the improvised explosive device, head of the U.S. Central Command K.McKenzie Jr. said in a speech1.
The objective of this project is to provide a solution to this growing threat, more specifically a system that can reliably sustain a long-term campaign of such cheap loitering munitions being deployed against a country. Therefore, the system need not only succeed in taking down the adversaries, but in doing so, must ensure the defense of the adversary is cheaper than the cost to attack for the enemy. Taking down $50,000 drones with $1,000,000 defenses is not a reliable long-term strategy, as the enemy can simply maintain its attack until the defending country exhausts their financial budget, ultimately leaving them vulnerable.
As the need for reliable, cost-effective defense against loitering munitions is relatively new,many potential solutions remain in early stages of development. In this context, a concept has already been identified and selected through a prior evaluation and scoring process. The purpose of this report is to build on that foundation by presenting the detailed design of the chosen solution, refining its subsystems and components to ensure performance, feasibility, and readiness for further analysis and testing.