The U.S. Army has successfully tested software designed to help vehicle-mounted weapons shoot down drones while both the target and the vehicle are moving, Picatinny Arsenal announced Tuesday.
The capability was demonstrated in April at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, using a Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station, or CROWS, equipped with software that has been designed to track and strike small drones while the vehicle is in motion.
The effort has been led by the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Armaments Center, according to the release.
The project, known as Simultaneous Weapon Autonomy Technology for Fire Control, or SWAT-FC, uses technology originally developed for the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft program and adapted to allow the weapons system to target and shoot from the ground.
The software uses sensors to provide constantly updating data, the announcement said, adding that once the system is developed fully, it will increase accuracy against small unmanned aircraft systems and decrease the number of rounds needed to disable them.
“It’s a great start to the effort,” Nick Cascia, the project’s armaments officer, said in the release. “The SWAT-FC team has put considerable time and effort into developing our advanced fire control algorithms and preparing for this test. Once we started destroying drones, it showed the hard work was paying off,” he said.
Eve Sampson is a reporter and former Army officer. She has covered conflict across the world, writing for The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Associated Press.