Modular Counter-UAS Solution Demonstrated for Small Naval Vessels

Leonardo DRS has completed its first series of open-water demonstrations of its advanced maritime Mission Equipment Package (MEP) for Counter‑UAS (C‑UAS) naval fleet protection.

The DRS maritime MEP is a scalable C-UAS system based on DRS’s proven land-based mobile short-range air defense and C-UAS systems. This system is designed to be mounted on a range of small uncrewed surface vessels providing remote ship protection at varying distances, providing a real solution as the Navy looks to autonomous surface vessels to protect ships from air and surface threats.

The initial demonstrations were conducted under realistic sea conditions and demonstrated the MEP’s core integrated systems performance, the detection, identification and tracking of a UAS threat and counter-surface ship tracking. The mission equipment package used in the demonstration included a suite of DRS sensors and command-and-control technologies including the BlackLab passive radio frequency (RF) detection system, STAG electro-optic/infrared (EO/IR) gimbal with advanced thermal cameras, and a tactical data management system using DRS’s sensor fusion operating system and AI to support fusion and target recognition using RF and Optical modalities.

The DRS Maritime MEP is designed for mission-flexibility through modularity and platform agnosticism. It is able to integrate advanced active and passive RF, EO/IR sensors, 4G/5G electronic‑warfare systems, and scalable kinetic or non‑kinetic effectors using its MOSA open system architecture embedded in the Leonardo DRS operating system.

Cari Ossenfort, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Leonardo DRS Naval Electronics Business Unit, said, “The U.S. Navy faces the same evolving drone threats as our land forces, and we recognize the urgency of delivering a reliable solution to protect the lives of sailors. By leveraging our proven expertise in mobile ground-based counter-UAS and short-range air defense systems, we have rapidly developed and demonstrated a maritime force protection capability that provides sailors with full-spectrum situational awareness and the tools to detect, track, and defeat threats at the tactical edge.”

The development and integration of the maritime Mission Equipment Package is an example of DRS’s deep experience as a leading innovator and integrator supporting a wide range of missions for the U.S. military and allies around the world. The company’s integration capability extends across all domains to support force protection, computer networking and C5I, as well as naval power and propulsion systems.