Andrzej Marszewski
Ukraine has made one thing very clear that can no longer be ignored. The speed of drone development is now such that the latest systems deployed to the frontline quickly require modification because threats are evolving at an equally rapid pace. It is the old attacker-versus-defender contest, only greatly accelerated.
The Ukrainians have effectively rewritten the rulebook on how development and production cycles should work in wartime. Technology must above all be front-line operational, rather than boardroom-focused, and relevant to what operators actually need. This is the key to both operational and commercial success.
The model is brutally simple: either a system works, or it gets adapted. If it still doesn’t work, it is binned. In short, in an existential war like that in Ukraine, nothing else matters.
A good example of a UK company understanding this is Caerphilly-based Drone Evolution, which has built on its extensive dual-use expertise in producing specialist UAS to deliver a range of drone platforms for the defence world too.
First came Sentinel, providing persistent ISR, electronic warfare and communications support, then Runner, designed to address the challenge of autonomous last-mile resupply – delivering a 5kg payload up to 20km, or 1kg up to 40km. This in turn was followed by the FPV revolution, resulting in its Scimitar range – robust, long-range FPVs designed around effective and straightforward operation under real battlefield conditions.
This progression is significant. Sentinel addressed persistence; Runner, resupply; Scimitar moved the company firmly into FPV territory. Developing all these systems gave Drone Evolution experience and knowledge in optimising components such as airframes, motors, batteries, software and payload integration, as well as understanding real-world operator requirements.
Now the time has come for Drone Evolution to move to the next level – albeit in the opposite direction. This next stage offers an appropriately named Searcher drone, representing a new short-range interceptor concept.
Now, instead of building a drone to reach and eliminate a target, a hunter for attacking drones has been developed. The operational concept is straightforward. The underlying technologies – batteries, motors, sensors and increasingly sophisticated seeker systems – are all already familiar to the wider drone sector. The difference lies in what they are being purposed to achieve.
Where many UAS are designed around endurance, Searcher is being optimised for acceleration and speed of interception.
Put simply, if a hostile drone is approaching, getting there quickly enough to destroy it is the only metric worth paying attention to.
Speed-wise, Searcher has already been tested at approximately 185 km/h – around half its intended top-speed capability. However, that remains a development target rather than demonstrated performance – but it indicates where the company intends to take the system.
The initial configuration is being developed around direct interception rather than an explosive payload. Other variants could subsequently be developed around different payloads, effects and ranges, all according to operational battlefield requirements.
Ultimately, the aim is for the operator to acquire the target and initiate lock-on, after which Searcher can transition into an autonomous terminal phase, completing the interception with speed and accuracy.
Looking further ahead, conventional air-to-air missile seeker technology could potentially be incorporated. If this can be achieved while maintaining a favourable cost exchange, it would demonstrate how technologies traditionally associated with complex, high-end weapons are migrating into the comparatively inexpensive autonomous systems of the future.
There is an important economic factor, too.
Current conflicts have exposed the illogical cost-exchange problem of exquisite interceptors repeatedly destroying inexpensive drones. Whilst sometimes unavoidable, it is not something that makes economic sense. A layered approach to counter-UAS operations increasingly requires cheaper systems to eliminate cheaper threats, while preserving expensive interceptors for the targets that actually justify them. Searcher is being developed precisely within that emerging requirement.
There is also a sovereign capability dimension. Drone Evolution is developing a UK sovereign targeting board with applications potentially extending beyond counter-UAS. The underlying technology could also potentially be applied to one-way-effect systems against ground targets, including trajectory shaping and autonomous manoeuvring during the terminal phase.
That matters because sovereignty increasingly means more than assembling an airframe in Britain. Software, targeting systems, sensors, seekers and the intellectual property behind them can ultimately determine how sovereign and scalable a capability really is.
Taken together, Sentinel, Runner, Scimitar and now Searcher chart an interesting technological progression. Persistence led to resupply. Resupply broadened into FPV. Now experience gained developing FPV systems is feeding into the increasingly urgent problem of defeating them.
The team at Drone Evolution started playing in this field by building attacking drones for the changing future battlefield. With the arrival of Searcher, it is like the centre-forward having adapted to play the central defender role too.
The real test will now be whether Searcher can make the transition from a promising development concept into an operationally credible and economically viable interceptor. If it can, Drone Evolution’s journey from Scimitar to Searcher may tell us something rather interesting about where the wider drone game is heading next.
Andrzej Marszewski is Defence Alternatives’ Correspondent-at-Large
Headline image shows Searcher, the latest addition to the company’s range of UAS. [Drone Evolution]
