MBDA showcased a new effector concept for its Sky Warden counter-uncrewed aerial systems (C-UAS) modular solution at Farnborough International Airshow 2024.
The company displayed a ground-launched anti-air munition, targeting threats that include Class 1 & smaller Class 2 small uncrewed aircraft systems (sUAS) and Loitering Munitions.
Collaborating with Fortem Technologies and utilizing DroneHunter® technology, the concept enables the rapid incorporation of a warhead on a drone to defeat threats at lower cost. Tests of the munition has proved its effectiveness and lethality.
The company will also draw on its recent successful operational demonstration, where MBDA demonstrated its flagship C-UAS solution to 17 customer delegations.
Sky Warden Demonstrations
Recent demonstrations saw Sky Warden faced with a wide range of offensive drone threats – with varying kinetic characteristics and in realistic operational scenarios – neutralizing them all.
Using artificial intelligence (AI) to assist its human operators to identify and classify the different threats from its full set of sensors (radar, passive RF, electro-optical cameras, etc.), Sky Warden automatically assigned the most appropriate and available effector, maximizing the efficiency.
In the threat scenarios Sky Warden faced, the system blocked attacking drones with jammers, captured them with hunter drones, neutralized them in rapid sequence by laser, and destroyed a ‘shahed-like’ drone with a Mistral 3 missile at very long distance.
With the tests of its new effector concept and the recent demonstration in Italy, MBDA reportedly sees an RF guided drone-style effector with a directional fragmenting warhead complementing the effects that Sky Warden already provides, giving users more options to adapt it to their preferred needs.
Drawn from MBDA’s wide experience in air defense and effects management, Sky Warden is a scalable system that can effectively neutralize any form of threat, from tactical drones to reconnaissance mini-drones, as well as other traditional ‘air breathing’ threats.
The system manages the full C-UAS kill chain from detection to neutralization and is designed to operate both as an integrated component in a layered air defense architecture, or in a standalone configuration.
Using a networked eco-system of constantly evolving sensors and effectors, Sky Warden matches the UAS threat and its evolutions.
Éric Béranger, CEO of MBDA, commented, “Our flagship Sky Warden modular C-UAS system is designed to evolve at the same rapid speed as the drone threat the world now faces, as demonstrated so effectively in recent trials.
“This latest effector solution shows MBDA in our best light: innovative and agile, adapting to the environment around us, and anticipating our customers’ needs. The exciting advance MBDA have made with this effector is in creating an independent warhead design that operators can add to a drone in the battlefield. It demonstrates our collaboration DNA, partnering with an emerging technology company to create a new low-cost counter drone effector.”
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