During Exercise “Black Dart” off the coast of Florida on 20 September, US Navy destroyers USS JASON DUNHAM (DDG 109) and USS LASSEN (DDG 82) tested counter-unmanned aerial systems (C-UAS) capabilities.
Planned, coordinated and overseen by the DoD Joint Integrated Air and Missile Defense Organization, “Black Dart” provides an opportunity for industry, government and operational forces to bring different system together for evaluation, share awareness of the latest developments and train, evaluate and improve upon current systems. The exercise is fully nested within the Chairman's Joint Integrated Air and Missile Defense Vision 2020.
“Overall, the communication across all the Department of Defense agencies and different entities that we have here has been great. We have the opportunity to employ some systems that we have not tested before, so it's a great experience for not only the ship, but the outside operators as well," said Cmdr. Kevin Hoffman, commanding officer of the JASON DUNHAM.
“The goal here is to test our organic sensors radar systems, camera systems and interface with the shore side [operators] who are testing systems for the same purpose," said Lt. Cmdr. Carl Poe, the vessel’s combat systems officer. "We want to communicate and coordinate to expand our battlespace and reduce reaction time we have from detection to engagement of these UAS.”
Photo US Navy
