The U.S. Marine Corps is gauging industry interest in manufacturing technology to detect or intercept unmanned aircraft, with plans to purchase six to 10 systems.
The counter-unmanned aircraft system (C-UAS) or similar product must provide air surveillance capable of detecting, recognizing, classifying, and identifying an unmanned aircraft, according to a May 26 request for information.
The C-UAS must be designed for a single operator to intercept drones and employ countermeasures such as jamming or blocking the radio frequency link between the UAS and its operator, or firing a net, laser or projectile, the presolicitation reads.
The Marine Corps wants to know whether the C-UAS is ground-based, mobile or vehicle-mounted, what type of control system will be used—such as laptop computer or handheld device—what spare parts will be needed for two years of support, and what peculiar tools may be required to maintain the system.
The service’s sole C-UAS program of record, the Marine Air Defense Integrated Systems (MADIS), is a vehicle kit providing low-altitude, surface-to-air weapons fires and air defense protection for maneuver forces and critical sites against rotary-wing and fixed-wing aircraft or UAS. The platform can detect, track and identify aerial threats within a short range.
