US Marines Seeks Technology To Counter Enemy, Spy Drones

US Marine corps is eyeing technology that can search and destroy commercially available enemy drones which can harass troops or gather surveillance unnoticed.

Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command (MARSOC) operator Master Sgt. Justin Olson said during a presentation at the Modern Day Marine expo, the command is on the hunt for a technology that can target and destroy this new skyborne threat.

The new technology must be capable of tracking and detecting small UAVs and be able to discern what, if any, threat they pose. Once a threat level has been established there will need to be options for reducing or terminating the offending aircraft.

 "Our focus right now is not so much counter-UAS on a larger scale, but counter-small systems," and, "Your micro, small handheld stuff, what will the enemy use," Olson said in Military.com Thursday.

Staff Sgt. Nic Gagnon, MARSOC development team member said that the Marines are "looking to counter anything you can buy off the shelf." 

The US Defense Department recently bought 100 "DroneDefenders," frequency jammers mounted on a frame similar to an assault rifle that can affect UAVs at a range of up to 400 meters. The devices, manufactured by Columbus, Ohio-based company Bastelle, could be useful in this effort.

Marine Corps commandant General Robert Neller told an audience at the convention that, by 2017, he wants every Marine infantry combat group to be able to deploy a UAV for surveillance and reconnaissance, to combat a new generation of sophisticated threats.