From Ukraine to Iran, recent conflicts have underscored how profoundly low-cost, proliferated and adaptable aerial threats are reshaping the modern battlefield. Small drones and one-way attack systems are compressing decision timelines, stressing traditional defenses and exposing the limitations of point solutions. Protecting against them requires layered defense, earlier detection, faster decisions, resilient integration and the ability to adapt as threats evolve.
Owning the edge in this environment requires more than rapid fielding. It requires the proven ability to integrate, field and adapt capabilities at the speed of the mission.
Leonardo DRS is building on fielded systems and operationally relevant integration experience to help U.S. and allied forces meet that challenge. Its air-defense and counter-unmanned aircraft system, or C-UAS, portfolio is designed to combine sensing, mission-system integration, open architecture and scalable defeat options across land and maritime environments.
The SGT STOUT M-SHORAD Mission Equipment Package illustrates that approach. The system provides maneuver forces with an organic means to detect, identify, track and defeat aerial threats while moving with the formation. It supports a critical layer of protection against drones, rotary-wing aircraft and fixed-wing threats. More than 160 SGT STOUT systems have been fielded to Army air-defense units since 2021, creating an established baseline for readiness, training and sustainment.
Such adaptability was reinforced recently during a U.S. government test, when SGT STOUT achieved its first successful defeats of Group 1–2 UAS threats using software updates alone. The result is a fielded capability with a credible, demonstrated path to evolve alongside the threat.
Leonardo DRS has also applied its integration experience to the Army’s Mobile-Low, Slow, Small Unmanned Aircraft System Integrated Defeat System, or M-LIDS. M-LIDS brings together detection, identification, tracking and defeat functions against small UAS using electronic-warfare and kinetic effects. The program demonstrates the value of integrating sensors, effects and command-and-control functions into a practical capability for operational use.
The broader lesson is clear: effective counter-UAS cannot rely on a single capability. It requires layered sensing, integrated command and control, multiple defeat pathways and the ability to sustain decision advantage as adversaries adapt. The same principle applies across mission environments, where customers need systems that can accept new sensors, software, computing resources and effects without requiring wholesale redesign.
That is why modularity and open architecture matter. Leonardo DRS designs mission equipment packages with platform-portable interfaces that can support the integration of best-of-breed technologies as requirements mature. This approach can help customers modernize more efficiently, preserve flexibility and reduce lifecycle risk as new capabilities are introduced.
The company’s counter-UAS work extends beyond ground formations. Leonardo DRS has demonstrated its Maritime Mission Equipment Package on an autonomous unmanned surface vessel, showing how modular integration can support protection for ships, ports, littoral infrastructure and expeditionary forces. Across domains, the objective is the same: give operators the awareness, decision support and defeat options needed to respond to evolving threats.
Leonardo DRS continues to apply lessons from fielded air-defense and counter-UAS programs to advance modular, adaptable capabilities aligned with evolving customer requirements. The future of air defense will depend on systems that are integrated, resilient and ready to evolve. Leonardo DRS is helping build that future through proven systems, adaptable architectures and mission-focused execution designed to help U.S. and allied forces Own the Edge™.
