July 8, 2022

The Start of Something Big

Highlights This Week:

• Echodyne, Diehl Defence announce new deals

• Israel downs three Hezbollah drones targeting offshore oil rigs

• Russian C-UAS efforts across Europe and in Ukraine

• Details emerge on drone swarms targeting at least 5 U.S. Navy vessels

• More Congressional support for DoD counter drone partnerships

The Deal Book

• Echodyne announced completion of a $135M funding round focused on enabling it to increase production and distribution of its radars and to expand its product lines for defense, security, and autonomous applications. Participation included investment from Northrup Grumman Corp., NEA, Madrona Ventures, Vulcan Capital, and Vanedge Capital.

• Diehl Defence landed a contract to deliver High-Power Electromagnetic (HPEM) SkyWolf C-UAS to an undisclosed customer in Africa. This system consists of a pulsed high-power radio frequency effector combined with a barrage jammer system, used primarily against small (Groups 1/2) UAVs. The system targets control and navigation links across both GNSS and ISM radio bands.

C-UAS in Action

• Israel announced that it had shot down three Hezbollah drones headed for its offshore oil platforms in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. One drone was shot down by a fighter jet, while the other two were hit by anti-aircraft missiles from an Israeli naval ship.

• The EU has identified rampant Russian exploitation of global navigation satellite signals (GNSS), the technology underpinning conventional UAS navigation, providing a window into Russia's C-UAS strategies in European theaters. The EU Aviation Safety Agency attributed interference (jamming and spoofing) to both GPS and Galileo signals in several key areas associated with Russian military efforts, including eastern Finland, the Black Sea, along the eastern Mediterranean, and in the Baltic Sea off the coast of Kaliningrad.

• The war in Ukraine represents the fullest implementation of unmanned systems to date, but a new focus by Russia on electronic warfare and drone defense is creating new challenges for Ukraine's long-term UAS strategy. Key systems for Russia in Ukraine include the Krasukha-S4 electronic warfare system and Stupor C-UAS gun.

• Russian state media claims success of Stupor C-UAS weapon in Ukraine.

• Chinese investment near USAF UAS research base raises Air Force concerns. Senior USAF leaders circulated a memo highlighting the national security risks associated with such a close presence of Chinese investment near sensitive military facilities.

• The Drive provides new details of those 2019 drone swarms targeting at least 5 U.S. Navy vessels. In one incident, the Navy attributed a Hong Kong-flagged merchant ships as the launch point for swarms targeting three vessels.

Over the Horizon

• U.S. Senate Seeks to Define DoD C-UAS Approach: Senator James Lankford (R-OK) introduced the "Strengthening Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems Operations (C-UAS) Partnerships Act" to authorize greater DoD counter drone partnerships. As written, the bill would empower the Army's Fires Center of Excellence in Ft. Sill to establish a joint C-UAS academy to establish a common curriculum used by all military services, and would authorize the Secretary of Defense to increase DoD partnership with international C-UAS leaders like Israel.

• U.S. chips enabling Chinese AI advances: Chips designed by U.S. companies are helping China achieve its goal of becoming the global leader in AI, according to a new report out this week from the Center for Security in Emerging Technology (CSET). In a review of 97 public records of Chinese military purchases of AI chips, "nearly all were designed by Nvidia, AMD, Intel, or Microsemi" - all U.S. companies. By comparison, there were no records of orders for high-end AI chips designed by Chinese companies.

• Canada set to host the C-UAS Sandbox, allowing firms to demonstrate emerging technologies from September-October 2022. Building on the results of the C-UAS 2019 Sandbox, the theme in 2022 is effective detect and defeat technologies that can be integrated into broader military command and control systems. Of particular interest are mobile, dismounted, urban, and naval solutions. The Pentagon's Irregular Warfare Technical Support Directorate (IWTSD) will attend as an official evaluator and observer as well.