C-sUAS<\/a> capabilities.<\/p>\nBut as an example of just how fast capabilities are developing on battlefields around the globe, individuals involved say that just four months after launching Vanaheim, a new threat has emerged that the project has not even begun to think about.<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, a defense source associated with the Armed Forces of Ukraine warned a briefing in London that Russia has increasingly begun use of fiber-optic wire control measures \u2014\u00a0 a concept which allows first-person view (FPV) attack drones to avoid disruption by radio frequency jammers.<\/p>\n
Speaking to an audience under condition of anonymity for operational security reasons, the source said that Ukraine\u2019s FPV teams are the \u201cmost hunted soldiers on the battlefield,\u201d and that the fiber-optic wire control systems are proving to be an unexpected threat.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo counter these, you can cut the wire; shoot them down; or use directed energy weapons,\u201d the source suggested before warning of an ongoing battle versus obsolescence when it comes to the deployment of sUAS and Counter-sUAS which can now be measured in just \u201cweeks and months.\u201d<\/p>\n
Which comes back to Vanaheim. Speaking to Breaking Defense several days later at the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford on July 18, industry sources described ongoing efforts by the British Army and US Army to replace \u201cad hoc\u201d acquisition of C-sUAS solutions with more permanent programs of record.<\/p>\n
According to Gil \u201cWaco\u201d Griffin, vice president for strategy and business development for L3Harris\u2019s Space and Airborne Systems division, Exercise Vanaheim 3, which took place in June at the Joint Multinational Readiness Centre in Hohenfels, Germany, saw British and US Army units testing 20 different C-sUAS solutions to \u201cdetect, track, identify and defeat\u201d quadcopters, the most common form factor for FPV attack drones.<\/p>\n
But, Griffin said, Vanaheim 3 had not included any requirement to neutralize fiber-optic wire controlled sUAS.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact of the matter is, if you rewind the clock six to nine months, we weren\u2019t worried about this threat which is kind of fascinating,\u201d Griffin told Breaking Defense. \u201cSo, it\u2019s evolving quickly, and I think that it\u2019s important that we adapt quickly so we\u2019re looking at all aspects of the threat all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ian Menzies, L3Harris\u2019 general manager for the Intelligence and Cyber International Division, added: \u201cSo we\u2019ve tuned into the lessons learned from Ukraine. And the great thing about this is it\u2019s highly adaptive at pace so we are iterating as we go literally through these demonstrations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Next Chapter For Vanaheim<\/p>\n
Joint Project Vanaheim seeks a C-sUAS capability \u201cusable by generalist soldiers, carried on the soldier or by a light vehicle and focused on countering class 1b\/c UAS including first person view drones,\u201d according to a UK MoD solicitation posted in May.<\/p>\n
Griffin explained how the exercise provided the opportunity for both countries to develop their own tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) for counter-UAS efforts, based on lessons learned from the ongoing war in Ukraine and operations in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
Soldiers were also equipped with shotguns and Smartshooter \u201cSmash\u201d weapon sights, he added before confirming the exercise had included the participation of observers from Germany, Poland and Ukraine. L3Harris brought its Corvus Raven system which was employed in dismounted and vehicle-mounted configurations in a rural environment.<\/p>\n
According to the L3Harris officials, the next phase of Joint Project Vanaheim will see just eight C-sUAS solutions selected to take part in Exercise Vanaheim 4 in Poland later in the summer. Exercise serials are expected to feature fixed-wing sUAS.<\/p>\n
Griffin confirmed L3Harris had yet to receive instructions from the program office but suggested Vanaheim 4 could be quickly followed an acquisition process to purchase a \u201csmall number\u201d of C-sUAS solutions for \u201cexperimentation and trials to further develop TTPs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The expectation, Griffin said, is that selected solutions would then participate in Exercise Convergence Capstone 6 in the US, expected next summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe intent we believe, is to actually establish a program of record on the back of Vanaheim. So that\u2019s certainly what they\u2019re trying to do to de-risk the capability that\u2019s here at the moment,\u201d Menzies added, referring to the British Army\u2019s Land GBAD program which is expected to feature a layered approach running \u201call the way from C-sUAS, through SHORAD to MRAD.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe MoD is now looking at that as a more integrated approach to that problem space. So of course, this fits very nicely into the lower echelons of that kind of application,\u201d Menzies concluded.<\/p>\n
\t\tRecommended\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. Soldiers with the Pennsylvania National Guard train with RQ-28 short range reconnaissance quadcopters during a field training…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3608,5475,142,59,3611,57,58,50,3613,56,54,5476,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-8923","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-air-force","9":"tag-counter-uas-cuas","10":"tag-drones","11":"tag-gb","12":"tag-global","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-greatbritain","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-riat-2025","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-united-kingdom-uk","20":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Drone](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/250603_DVIDS_quadcopter_launch_8707147-scaled-e1748979423115.jpg\")
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