SRC is moving ahead with testing of its Silent Archer CUAV/CIED platform
SRC has showcased a mobile version of its Silent Archer Counter Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) system which equips the US Army at the Association of the United States Army exhibition held in Washington DC between 9th and 11th October.
Mounted on a Polaris MRZR four-wheel drive vehicle, SRC’s mobile Silent Archer can also perform Counter Improvised Explosive Device (CIED) jamming. The vehicle is equipped with an S-band (2.3 gigahertz/GHz to 2.5GHz, 2.7GHz to 3.7GHz) radar for UAV detection, plus Radio Frequency (RF) jamming equipment. The company told MONS that the vehicle can jam RF both on the move and at the halt, and is simultaneously capable of jamming UAV and IED threats without causing interference regarding friendly RF transmissions. The firm continued that the platform is expected to participate in a number of US Army exercises in the coming year, although it demurred from providing a date as to when the platform could be ready for production. These tests could include the performance of jamming against real world threats. It added that, although the system was exhibited equipping an MRZR vehicle, the architecture is vehicle agnostic. SRC continued that, overall, the capability is at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) Six: TRLs are used by the US Department of Defence to denote the maturity of a particular technology, with TRL-6 denoting that the “system/subsystem model or prototype (has undergone) demonstration in a relevant environment,” although the company stated that as a number of components equipping the system have been procured as Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) technology, these latter systems are fully mature. The US Army is known to have a requirement for a mobile CUAV/CIED capability.
Thomas Withington