By Tyler Barth
PICATINNY ARSENAL, N.J. - A new effort led by the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) Armaments Center has demonstrated advancements developed for fire control enabling the ability to engage and defeat drones with a Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station (CROWS) while shooting on the move.
The Simultaneous Weapon Autonomy Technology for Fire Control (SWAT-FC) project is a Science and Technology software effort that is designing, developing, and demonstrating advanced counter-drone fire control capabilities on the CROWS as the Remote Weapon Station (RWS) demonstration hardware. The project underwent testing in April at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Aberdeen, Md.
According to Armaments Project Officer for SWAT-FC Nick Cascia, the project began as a mission-driven response to the emerging small UAS threat after leadership directed a capability to pursue advanced fire control to defeat small drones. The effort integrated the Armaments Center’s Gunslinger fire control, originally developed under the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft program, and adapted Gunslinger for ground-to-air targeting. The RWS is able to defeat small moving targets while the vehicle is in motion by using the Gunslinger’s fire control, as well as various vehicle sensor feeds, to provide real-time data, thus ensuring the RWS is accurately aiming at the target drone while shooting.
This fire control solution uses a Modular Open System Approach, so the developed fire control software as well as any future enhancements can be shared across the Army. Once matured, the fire control software will improve system accuracy against drones, reducing the number of rounds needed to defeat the threat.
According to Deputy Project Lead for SWAT-FC James Little, the development team received promising results from their April tests and will iterate and build upon these results in subsequent tests to improve system performance. With these tests, developers will continue to increase the speed of both the vehicle and drone.
“It’s a great start to the effort,” Cascia explained. “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.”