More comprehensive air defense jamming system
The broader Marine Air Defense Integrated System is meant to shoot down drones, fixed-wing aircraft, and helicopters and includes both non-kinetic (jamming) and kinetic weapons to down drones. The kinetic weapon is a 7.62-millimeter minigun mounted on the new Humvee replacement, the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle. The Marine Corps plans to eventually add laser weapons to LMADIS.
The DroneGun MKIII is a portable pistol-shape drone cell phone jammer designed for one hand operation, coming in at a weight of 4.3 lbs. The company believes this product is peerless globally, for its combination of size and effectiveness.
If the signal-cell phone jammer fails, then the buggy's radar technology can direct conventional missiles towards the same target to finish it off. The radar can detect targets ranging from small commercially available drones up to bombers and passenger jets, at heights ranging from 30 to 30,000 feet. Almost no low-altitude aircraft will be missed
The system is comprised of two vehicles — one a “command node,” and the other a “sensor node.” The vehicles are outfitted with radar sensors, cameras, and radio frequency detectors and signal jammer. Once the crew is able to detect a threat, they use the jammer to disrupt the signals from the drone. While the system has been tested out on land by ground forces, Military.com reports that the Navy and Marines began testing the system on ships earlier this year.
When the USS Boxer took down an Iranian drone in the Strait of Hormuz, it apparently represented a baptism by fire for new technology. The Wall Street Journal understands that the action was the US Navy's first use of MADIS (Marine Air Defense Integrated System), an anti-drone system adapted for the sea. The technology uses jammers to block a drone's communications and force it to crash. Some versions of MADIS can also fire at the drones, although it's not clear that was the case here.
If it becomes clear that the target is hostile, Marines can then use a Modi jammer to disrupt the drone's links to its ground control station, potentially causing it to crash. The Marine's specifically developed LMADIS to respond to the ever-growing threat of small unmanned aircraft. In January 2019, USS Kearsarge, another Wasp class ship, deployed the same system as it passed through the Suez Canal.
The LMADIS system comprises two all-terrain vehicles, called Polaris MRZRs. One serves as a command unit, while the other is outfitted with sensors and signal-jamming equipment. The sensor unit feeds information to a tablet on the command and control MRZR, from which an operator can track an incoming drone, get visual confirmation that it’s hostile, and disrupt communications between a drone and its home using a radio frequency blast.