Leonardo DRS Completes First Open-Water Demonstration of Counter-UAS Maritime Mission Equipment Package for Small Uncrewed Surface Vessels.

Leonardo DRS successfully completed open-water demonstrations of its Counter-UAS Maritime Mission Equipment Package for small uncrewed surface vessels. The system is designed to detect, identify, and track UAS threats, and defeat them using advanced sensors and command-and-control technologies. The DRS Maritime MEP is scalable, modular, and platform-agnostic, providing full-spectrum situational awareness and force protection capabilities. The development and integration of the maritime Mission Equipment Package showcase DRS's expertise in defense technologies and innovation.

Leonardo DRS, Inc. (NASDAQ: DRS) has successfully completed its first series of open-water demonstrations of its advanced maritime Mission Equipment Package (MEP) for counter-unmanned aircraft systems (C-UAS) naval fleet protection. The demonstrations, conducted under realistic sea conditions, showcased the system's core integrated systems performance, including detection, identification, and tracking of UAS threats, as well as counter-surface ship tracking [1].

The DRS Maritime MEP is a scalable C-UAS system based on the company's proven land-based mobile short-range air defense and C-UAS systems. Designed to be mounted on a range of small uncrewed surface vessels, the system provides remote ship protection at varying distances. It integrates advanced active and passive RF, EO/IR sensors, 4G/5G electronic warfare systems, and scalable kinetic or non-kinetic effectors using its MOSA open system architecture embedded in the Leonardo DRS operating system [1].

The initial demonstrations utilized a suite of DRS sensors and command-and-control technologies, including the BlackLab passive radio frequency (RF) detection system, STAG electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) gimbal with advanced thermal cameras, and a tactical data management system using DRS's sensor fusion operating system and AI to support fusion and target recognition using RF and Optical modalities [1].

Cari Ossenfort, senior vice president and general manager of the Leonardo DRS Naval Electronics business unit, emphasized the urgency of delivering a reliable solution to protect sailors from evolving drone threats. "By leveraging our proven expertise in mobile ground-based counter-UAS and short-range air defense systems, we have rapidly developed and demonstrated a maritime force protection capability that provides sailors with full-spectrum situational awareness and the tools to detect, track, and defeat threats at the tactical edge," she stated [1].

The DRS Maritime MEP is designed for mission flexibility through modularity and platform agnosticism. Its development and integration are a testament to DRS's deep experience as a leading innovator and integrator supporting a wide range of missions for the U.S. military and allies around the world [1].

References:
[1] https://www.stocktitan.net/news/DRS/leonardo-drs-successfully-completes-first-open-water-demonstration-sds2hn6r01q8.html