The UK Army is preparing to supply combat soldiers with a specially made counter-drone sight known as SMASH, which is designed to considerably increase a fighter’s ability to take out enemy mini- and micro-UAVs while in flight.
The Army’s page on the UK’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) site recently announced its initial order of the counter-drone targeting tech, whose full name is SmartShooter SMASH Smart Weapon Sight Fire Control System. Once attached to SA80 A3 assault weapons and other military firearms, the unit recognizes a UAV within its range, tracks its movements, and locks onto the craft for firing – whether it hovers in place, advances in steady fashion, or undertakes evasive maneuvers.
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Increased capability to neutralize smaller aircraft with effective counter-drone assets has become an rising concern among armies since the demonstrated effectiveness of consumer, enterprise, and reduced-sized military UAVs in Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s invasion.
While broad, area-securing counter-drone systems have shown varying degrees of efficacy in protecting troops from hostile UAV attacks in that conflict, Western armed forces have also been looking for ways to improve single-shot defense tech for use by individuals on the ground as last lines of defense.
To that end, the UK Army says it has already ordered 225 SMASH sights under a £4.6million ($5.8 million) MoD contract – the first of procurement of the counter-drone tech it plans to make. Those assets will be issued to what are known as Very High Readiness units across the various branches of the British military.
The Army’s release says orders of SMASH sights have been made with UK company Viking Arms Ltd., though the actual producer of the counter-drone product is Israeli startup SMARTSHOOTER.
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The SMASH device relies on image processing to automatically identify a UAV within the sight’s field of range, then projects a box around the target to improve the shooter’s vision and accuracy. The counter-drone system was successfully tested at the Army’s experimentation facility earlier this year, and impressed UK officials with its performance.
“As we have seen in Ukraine and other operational areas, the UAS threat is growing significantly, (and) SMASH offers significant enhancement to the close combat operator across all three Services, delivering a tactical edge to the dismounted soldier in the (counter-drone) battle,” commented anti-UAV program Wing Commander Mark Bowden. “We are very pleased to announce the arrival of the first dismounted C-sUAS equipment into the core equipment program. SMASH is a proven capability already in service with our allies and partners.”
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