HUNTSVILLE, Alabama — The U.S. Army is considering holding a competition in fiscal year 2025 for a next-generation interceptor to defeat threats from unmanned aerial vehicles, Brig. Gen. Frank Lozano, program director for missiles and space, told an audience Aug. 6 at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium.
The Army uses its Combat Capabilities Development Command Aviation & Missile Center to evaluate systems like Raytheon’s Coyote and Blue Halo’s Next-Generation C-UAS Missile. But according to Lozano, “there are other companies working on [counter-UAS] interceptors that may also have growth potential to intercept missiles, large-caliber missiles and possibly cruise missiles.”
A competition would be held next year “to see if there is something better that we should pursue,” he said.[It’s] a way to confirm that our investment is delivering the results we want to achieve.”
According to an AvMC spokesperson, the Army released an objective requirement in March 2023 through the Aviation & Missile Technology Consortium, managed by Advanced Technology International, to develop a prototype Long-Range Kinetic Interceptor.
The service and the Joint Counter-small UAS Office require development and testing of the NGCM prototype, the spokesperson told Defense News.
The suppliers selected for direct financing came from a pool of 16. Eleven others were placed in a “basket” for possible future selection, the spokesperson said.
The military also plans to hold a competition for a new portable device to take out drones, Lozano noted.
“A handheld system is inherently limited in its power,” he said, but Lozano noted that the Army recently saw promising handheld system capabilities during a field exercise with the 101st Airborne Division.
According to Lozano, the service equipped the unit with portable capabilities that could compete against small UAS prior to its rotation at the Joint Readiness Training Center.
A competition for a mobile flat-panel array radar to detect drone threats is also underway for fiscal year 2025.
The Army already has such equipment built into the Stryker combat vehicle’s mobile anti-UAS system, but officials are trying to establish a reliable system for future operations, Lozano said.
