MBDA’s Sky Warden advances their new effector concept plus successful system demo

MBDA has showcased the firm’s new effector concept for the company’s Sky Warden counter-uncrewed aerial systems (C-UAS) modular solution.

The new effector concept is a ground launched, anti-air, munition that targets threats that include Class 1 and smaller Class 2, small uncrewed aircraft systems (sUAS) and Loitering Munitions. Collaborating with Fortem Technologies and using their DroneHunter® technology, the concept enables the rapid incorporation of a warhead on a drone to defeat threats at lower cost. Tests of the munition has proved its effectiveness and lethality.

Recent customer demonstrations saw Sky Warden faced with a wide range of offensive drone threats – with varying kinetic characteristics and in realistic operational scenarios – neutralizing them all. Using AI to assist its human operators to identify and classify the different threats from its full set of sensors (radar, passive RF, electro-optical cameras, etc.), Sky Warden automatically assigned to the most appropriate and available effector maximizing the efficiency. In the threat scenarios Sky Warden faced, it blocked attacking drones with jammers, captured them with hunter drones, neutralized them in rapid sequence by laser, and destroyed a ‘shahed-like’ drone with a Mistral 3 missile at very long distance.

With the tests of its new effector concept and the recent demonstration in Italy, MBDA sees an RF guided drone-style effector with a directional fragmenting warhead complementing the effects that Sky Warden already provides, giving customers more options to adapt it to their preferred needs.

Drawn from MBDA’s wide experience in air defence and effects management, Sky Warden is a scalable system that can effectively neutralise any form of threat, from tactical drones to reconnaissance mini-drones, as well as other traditional ‘air breathing’ threats. The system manages the full C-UAS kill chain from detection to neutralization and is designed to operate both as an integrated component in a layered air defence architecture, or in a standalone configuration. Using a networked eco-system of constantly evolving sensors and effectors, Sky Warden matches the UAS threat and its evolutions.

Whether vehicle mounted or dismounted, Sky Warden satisfies the need for both mobility and deployment. Being modular, scalable, and evolvable, customer can tailor Sky Warden to their specific requirements.

Éric Béranger, CEO of MBDA, said, “Our flagship Sky Warden modular C-UAS system is designed to evolve at the same rapid speed as the drone threat the world now faces, as demonstrated so effectively in recent trials. This latest effector solution shows MBDA in our best light: innovative and agile, adapting to the environment around us, and anticipating our customers’ needs. The exciting advance MBDA have made with this effector is in creating an independent warhead design that operators can add to a drone in the battlefield. It demonstrates our collaboration DNA, partnering with an emerging technology company to create a new low-cost counter drone effector.”