Accurate sensors are critical for armor units under fire
Maneuver formations face multifaceted threats that include kinetic force-on-force and non-kinetic effects such as electronic warfare.
“We are on track from a programmatic standpoint — cost, schedule performance — but we're always gonna be late to need,” said Col. Andrew Konicki, the program manager for Ground Based Air Defense (GBAD). "The threat is ever changing and ever evolving."
“If you think it's hard to buy a counter-UAS capability, go ask the contracting officer, ‘How do I buy three trees and have them planted?’” said Don Kelley, the Marine Corps Program Executive Officer Land Systems Ground-Based Air Defense program manager, referring to one particular unforeseen challenge to a program.
Part of the Pentagon's broader counter UAS strategy it published last year, the Marines hope to field a system by fiscal 2025.