The organized trials cover three lanes: drone-on-drone interceptors, kinetic or ballistic mitigation using shotgun-based systems, and capabilities that sense and detect enemy unmanned aerial systems.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t fight what you can\u2019t see, and our commander [Northcom\u2019s Gen. Greg Guillot] says that a lot,\u201d Farmer told DefenseScoop. \u201cSo, as you saw today, seeing with your naked eye is really hard, and by the time your eyes see it, it might be too late to do anything about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cAnd so having that capability with our sensors, whether that\u2019s infrared, other optical means, or other technology, the farther out we can see something \u2014 and then we can track it and really tell whether that\u2019s friendly or not friendly \u2014 is key to this fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pentagon counter-UAS exercises have been known to focus often on tactical, expeditionary warfare and impacts on forces abroad.\u00a0But this year, Falcon Peak 26.2 is directly targeting Northcom\u2019s mission to defend against drone threats that have been emerging across U.S. airspace, critical infrastructure, and incursions escalating around the southern border.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cCartels use drones for many things, including drug smuggling, human trafficking, and also surveilling our troops,\u201d Farmer noted. \u201cAnd so we\u2019re here in this environment to test capabilities that we can use against that very specific threat.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Testing at Yuma replicates conditions along America\u2019s 1,954-mile border with Mexico.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe focus this year is really not only just on counter-drone at-large, but the warfighter who\u2019s [there],\u201d Farmer said. \u201cBeing here replicates a large portion of that border. And so we\u2019re really getting after putting the right technology in the warfighters\u2019 hands. Being here in Yuma gets us that much closer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beyond being the first Falcon Peak exercise to emulate border combat and unfold on the military\u2019s sprawling Yuma Proving Ground, 26.2 also marks the first iteration that the command deployed Anduril\u2019s autonomous command-and-control (C2) software platform Lattice as a digital backbone and baseline standard against which all commercial sensor-to-shooter counter-UAS assets are measured.<\/p>\n
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