MAY 15, 2025 — While the U.S. Army continues to enhance its support and build-up resources along the southern border, the Department of Defense warned service members about the increased weaponization of uncrewed aerial systems, UAS, and surveillance along the U.S.-Mexico border by cartel members.
The emergence of UAS and uncrewed system, UxS, threats drove the need for the DoD and Army to innovate quickly across a tactical and technical spectrum of operations.
In support of this priority, the U.S. Army Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance — C5ISR — Center has partnered with the 10th Mountain Division, providing cutting-edge technology and technical expertise to support the division with border operations.
C5ISR Center scientists and engineers have developed a Counter-UAS architecture designed to reduce the number of warfighters in harm’s way on the battlefield and across unknown terrain. The new platform leverages a government-developed, government-owned family of systems and sensors that has the adaptability and capability of supporting multiple C-UAS variants, all integrated into a single vehicle platform.
“The architecture allows the Army to rapidly integrate best-of-breed sensor technology from each of our sensing modalities to stay ahead of an ever-evolving threat — through big and small businesses, non-traditional contractors, academia and defense research and development laboratories,” said Bill Newmeyer, C5ISR Center, Response Analysis and Data Extraction Branch chief.
The C5ISR Center began developing a C-UAS system in 2018 with the goal of delivering a technology capable of detecting the characteristics of what makes a drone a drone. From the data gathered, the team built specific technology around those data-points to have a high probability of detection and low false alarms.
“The development of technologies which limits the number of Soldiers in harm’s way is critical to all Army missions, especially C-UAS,” said Dr. Brandon Dodd, C5ISR Center, C-UAS production team lead. “In recent years, the UAS threat has drastically increased which has driven the need for innovative approaches to C-UAS, which the DoD research centers have done a good job of responding to.”
To address the threat, C5ISR Center leaders anticipated the organization’s need for a modular solution. “We need to leverage government-owned modular open architecture to allow for near-term and continuous transition of science and technology as technology matures to meet rapidly evolving and emerging threats,” said Dodd. “Modularity will enable rapid implementation of extended range, lower cost and lower collateral defeat solutions.”
According to the Director of C5ISR Center, Beth Ferry, the scale of the current threat requires a team of teams’ approach. “No one service, center or company can solve this [UxS threat] on their own. We need an integrated teaming approach,” said Ferry. “The C5ISR Center is synchronizing across DEVCOM [U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command], the U.S. Army, DoD, other government agencies, industry, academia and other stakeholders to ensure efforts are aligned.”
As C-UAS technology matures, its adaptability and ability to use artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies has become prominent, said Newmeyer. “The use of AI and ML quickly provided users with critical information, allowing them to make informed decisions. Additionally, the C-UAS technology is equipped with multiple detect, track and defeat capabilities,” he said.
“The government-owned software in our C-UAS technology was developed to integrate all the independent sensors together in a way that reduces the cognitive load on the user to expedite decision-making at machine speed versus human speed,” said Dodd.
By design, integrating the technologies into a single vehicle gives the current C-UAS platform an added advantage.
“The advantage comes from the ability to rapidly deploy the system where it’s needed most and quickly set up,” said Dodd, “enabling teams to use the system on missions rather than only having this level of protection restricted to installations.”
With the technology’s adaptability, commanders can configure the system to work in a way that maximizes each organization’s goals.
“Based on the flexibility of the integrated software, our C-UAS technology can be implemented differently at each echelon of the Army — based on the needs at each level,” said Dodd. “This implementation would lead to a common baseline of C-UAS throughout the Army that would further enable coordination of air defense at all echelons.”
With cartels threatening to deploy weaponized UAS, it is essential to get combat-tested C-UAS in the hands of trained operators.
“One of the main objectives for our C-UAS program is to make decisions at machine speed leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities,” said Newmeyer. “As a result, the training is designed to be minimal. C5ISR Center, through PEO Missiles and Space, will eventually deliver these modular C-UAS systems for operational use — to pace with rapidly evolving threats through continuous iterations in a persistent experimentation environment, which will help us understand both the threats and Soldiers’ needs.”
The U.S. Army Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Center is the Army’s applied research and advanced technology development center for C5ISR capabilities. As the Army’s primary integrator of C5ISR technologies and systems, DEVCOM C5ISR Center supports our networked Warfighters by identifying, developing, maturing, and rapidly integrating innovative technologies to drive continuous transformation.
DEVCOM C5ISR Center is an asset of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command. DEVCOM is Army Futures Command’s leader and integrator within a global ecosystem of scientific exploration and technological innovation. DEVCOM expertise spans eight major competency areas to provide integrated research, development, analysis and engineering support to the Army and DOD. From rockets to robots, drones to dozers, and aviation to artillery – DEVCOM innovation is at the core of the combat capabilities American Warfighters need to win on the battlefield of the future. For more information, visit c5isrcenter.devcom.army.mil/.
By Kyle Richardson, C5ISR Center Public Affairs