WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force fit together terrifying with furry in tests of electronic warfare equipment aboard a commonly utilized drone.
The service’s 556th Test and Evaluation Squadron in April finished preliminary ground and flight screening of an MQ-9A Reaper equipped with the Angry Kitten ALQ-167 Electronic Countermeasures Pod, a cluster of elements consisted of in a slightly cat-shaped tube.
The effective trials at Creech Air Force Base, Nevada, concentrated on offering electronic attack from the Reaper, a General Atomics Aeronautical Systems item usually utilized to gather intelligence or carry out reconnaissance. The pod is stemmed from innovation established by the Georgia Tech Research Institute, which in 2013 explained the task as utilizing industrial electronic devices, custom-made hardware and unique machine-learning for versatility.
“The goal is to expand the mission sets the MQ-9 can accomplish,” Maj. Aaron Aguilar, the 556th Test and Evaluation Squadron assistant director of operations, said in a declaration May 13. “The proliferation and persistence of MQ-9s in theater allows us to fill traditional platform capability gaps that may be present.”
Electronic warfare, or EW, is an unnoticeable defend control of the electro-magnetic spectrum, utilized to interact with friendly forces, to recognize and reduce challengers, and to guide weapons. Dominance of the spectrum will be vital in a battle with China or Russia, the 2 most considerable nationwide security hazards, according to U.S. defense authorities.
The Air Force is attempting to renew its EW abilities after years of disregard; the service in September revealed a “sprint” to collect shortages, look for required resources and recognize next actions.
Lt. Col. Michael Chmielewski, the 556th Test and Evaluation Squadron leader, in a declaration said electronic attack aboard a Reaper is “compelling.” The Air Force formerly utilized Angry Kitten in training, equipping assailant squadrons with the equipment to bother students and mimic excessive electronic barrages.
“Fifteen hours of persistent noise integrated with a large force package will affect an adversary, require them to take some form of scalable action to honor it, and gets at the heart of strategic deterrence,” Chmielewski said.
Angry Kitten’s name is a brew of within joke and style objectives, according to a 2013 Newsweek report. It is likewise a departure from the common terror-inducing military name: Hellfire rocket, Predator drone, Stryker battle vehicle.
Roger Dickerson, a senior research study engineer with the Sensor and Electromagnetic Applications Laboratory at the Georgia Tech Research Institute, in 2015 informed C4ISRNET that although the pod has “an admittedly slightly silly name,” it represents “very serious technology.”
“We’ve been working hard to improve the capabilities and the readiness of the war fighters in our sponsor organizations: the Army, the Navy and especially the U.S. Air Force air combat community,” Dickerson said at the time.
Colin Demarest is a press reporter at C4ISRNET, where he covers military networks, cyber and IT. Colin formerly covered the Department of Energy and its National Nuclear Security Administration — specifically Cold War clean-up and nuclear weapons advancement — for a day-to-day paper in South Carolina. Colin is likewise an acclaimed professional photographer.
