The anti-DRONE missile: US Army fires steerable smart shells that can bring down UAVs from miles away

• 50mm cannon to fire smart interceptor missiles
  
• Complex radar system used to steer them towards their target

By Mark Prigg For Dailymail.com
Published: 23:34 GMT, 27 July 2015 | Updated: 00:30 GMT, 28 July 2015
The US Army is testing a radical new anti drone 'smart' missile.
Called the Extended Area Protection and Survivability Integrated Demonstration, or EAPS ID,Army bosses revealed the weapon has already been fired at Picatinny Arsenal.
It uses a 50mm cannon to fire smart interceptors, with a complex radar system used to steer them towards their target.

Called the Extended Area Protection and Survivability Integrated Demonstration, or EAPS ID, Army bosses revealed the weapon has already been fired at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey.

As drone technology gains greater public attention, along with its potential for hostile action against American targets, defeating them has become a major issue.

'It's unbelievable how much it's exploded,' said Manfredi Luciano, the project officer for the EAPS system said about the use of drones.
'Every country has them now, whether they are armed or not or what level of performance.
'This is a huge threat has been coming up on everybody. It has kind of almost sneaked up on people, and it's almost more important than the counter-RAM threat.'
The new system uses a 50mm cannon to launch command guided interceptors.
'The gun system has certain logistics advantages,' Luciano said.
The current prototype uses a readily available 50-millimeter Orbital ATK Bushmaster III cannon. Denmark and the Netherlands already have CV-90 armored vehicles in service toting the 35-millimeter variant of this weapon.
Neither Orbital ATK nor the Army have offered any specific details on how far away the gun can hit and kill its targets. 
Engineers described the weapon's 'battlespace' as reaching out to just over a mile, according to one 2011 briefing.
On the ground, a radar points the guns in the right direction.
Then once the shells leave the barrel, a computer beams guidance instructions, telling them where to go and changing their course mid-flight.
The project began as an Army Technology Objective program.
The goal was to develop and demonstrate technology, which could support a gun-based solution to counter rockets, artillery and mortars, or C-RAM.

The EAPS ARDEC gun alternative envisions a 50mm cannon to launch command guided interceptors. The system uses a precision tracking radar interferometer as a sensor, a fire control computer, and a radio frequency transmitter and receiver to launch the projectile into an engagement 'basket.'

Research into enhanced C-RAM technology had the goal of extending the range and probability of success against the incoming threat.
'The smaller and smaller the protective area, the more efficient the gun systems become compared to missiles,' said Luciano.
'You don't need as many, and the gun system has certain logistics advantages.'
The UAS challenge has grown exponentially in the last decade as the world's inventory of Unmanned Aircraft Systems has grown from approximately 20 system types and 800 aircraft in 1999, to more than 200 system types and approximately 10,000 unmanned aircraft in 2010, said Nancy Elliott, a spokeswoman with the U.S. Army's Fires Center of Excellence on Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
Luciano and his team, working on enhanced area protection and survivability, tested an integrated system on April 22, by shooting down a class 2 unmanned aerial system using command guidance and command warhead detonation at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona.
'In order to minimize the electronics on board the interceptor and to make it cheaper, all the 'smarts' are basically done on the ground station,' Luciano said.
'The computations are done on the ground, and the radio frequency sends the information up to the round.'

The EAPS system being tested. The Picatinny area-protection systems track both the incoming threat and interceptor, then compute an ideal trajectory correction for the interceptor to maximize probability of mission success.

The Picatinny area-protection systems track both the incoming threat and interceptor, then compute an ideal trajectory correction for the interceptor to maximize probability of mission success. A thruster on the interceptor/projectile is used for course correction.
The ground station uplinks the maneuver and detonation commands while receiving downlinked assessment data.
The interceptor takes the commands and computes the roll orientation and time to execute thruster and warhead detonation.
The warhead has a tantalum-tungsten alloy liner to form forward propelled penetrators for defeat of C-RAM targets, and steel body fragments to counter unmanned aerial systems.
Luciano said that during another upcoming test, the engineers would try to intercept and destroy an unmanned aerial system under a more difficult engagement scenario.
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