U.S. and British forces tested counter-drone technology at a training area in Lithuania on Friday (May 15) as part of Project Fly Trap 5.0, a military exercise focused on developing defences against unmanned aircraft threats.

The event brought together soldiers, allied partners and industry experts to experiment with low-cost counter-drone solutions at Pabrade Training Area.

Soldiers operated various drones, including first-person view models, while testing jamming devices and detection systems mounted on armoured vehicles. The exercise evaluated both kinetic and non-kinetic methods to disrupt, disable or destroy unmanned aircraft systems in realistic field conditions.

"There's no one solution for counter UAS and instead it really requires a multi-layered counter UAS approach bringing together a lot of different sensors, effectors together to provide a holistic kind of protective array for our soldiers," said Major Galen King, executive officer of the U.S. Army 2nd Cavalry Regiment.

King said that basic military fundamentals like camouflage and digging fighting positions became more important as drones make battlefields increasingly transparent.

The outcome from training can inform future integration of counter UAS capabilities across US and allied formations.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

1. FPV DRONE FLYING AWAY

2. FPV DRONE IN AIR

3. U.S. ARMY SERVICEMAN PILOTING DRONE WEARING FPV GOGGLES

4. SOLDIER OPERATING DRONE USING REMOTE CONTROL

5. FPV DRONE FLYING

6. (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. ARMY 2ND CAVALRY REGIMENT EXECUTIVE OFFICER, MAJ. GALEN KING, SAYING:

“There's no one solution for counter UAS and instead it really requires a multi-layered counter UAS approach bringing together a lot of different sensors, effectors together to provide a holistic kind of protective array for our soldiers”.

7. U.S. ARMY REPRESENTATIVES TALKING WITH SOLDIERS

8. SOLDIER SHOWING DRONE JAMMER DEVICE

9. DRONE REMOTE CONTROL

10. CAMERA MOUNTED ON FPV DRONE

11. SOLDIERS AND DRONE INDUSTRY REPRESENTATIVES DISCUSSING EQUIPMENT

12. (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. ARMY 2ND CAVALRY REGIMENT EXECUTIVE OFFICER, MAJ. GALEN KING, SAYING:

“Soldier fundamentals still matter, and I would argue that they matter even more now. Simple things like employing camouflage, digging a fighting position, using different amounts of multispectral ways to hide yourself have become even more important as the battlefield becomes more and more transparent.”

13. U.S. SOLDIERS CHANGING DRONE BATTERY

14. VARIOUS OF SOLDIERS CHECKING HELICOPTER DRONE

15. CAMERA AND SENSORS MOUNTED ON DRONE

16. HELICOPTER DRONE TAKING OFF

17. (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. ARMY 2ND CAVALRY REGIMENT EXECUTIVE OFFICER, MAJ. GALEN KING, SAYING:

“As we have more sensors, we have more things that are flying that are driving back data that needs to be synthesised. We see that for leaders on the ground there's an increasing threat of cognitive overload where they're seeing so much information and it's hard to understand what's important, what's not, when I should act versus when I should not. And so with that one of the key focuses for project Fly Trap is is really on our network.”

18. SOLDIERS TALKING NEAR DRONES AND MILITARY EQUIPMENT

19. U.S. SOLDIERS TALKING NEXT TO DRONE

20. BRITISH SOLDIERS STANDING IN FRONT OF DRONE JAMMER

21. DRONE JAMMER

22. U.S. OFFICERS

23. QUADCOPTER DRONE ON GROUND

24. ARMOURED PERSONNEL CARRIER STRYKER

25. DRONE DETECTOR MOUNTED ON STRYKER

26. FLAG WITH TEXT READING (English): “HARD TO KILL” ON ARMOURED VEHICLE