Air Defenders, Aviators in Europe Combine Forces During Operation Skyfall II

GRAFENWOEHR, Germany - U.S. Army air defenders assigned to the 5th Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 52nd Air Defense Artillery Brigade, worked with Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 159th Aviation Regiment, 12th Combat Aviation Brigade, on Oct. 6, at the Grafenwoehr Training Area to showcase connectivity and interoperability capabilities first assessed by both units earlier this year.

In March, the first Operation Skyfall demonstrated that the AH-64E Apache Guardian helicopters could track and engage UAS targets using data fed by ground-based air defense sensors. Operation Skyfall II built on those capabilities, providing aviation crews with more opportunities to detect, engage and destroy drones.

The first step in countering a drone threat is knowing its location. The AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel radar, used on the SGT STOUT air defense system, is a mobile, ground-based system that provides continuous, low-altitude target alerting, tracking and queuing data. Additionally, the Sentinel can detect threats farther away and provide an earlier warning, then the Apache's sensors, enhancing the survivability of the Apache while also providing targeting data for engagement.

"We're sending the data of where the track [drone] is in time and space, so the Apache pilot knows exactly where the track is," said Lt. Col. John Verwiel, 5-4 ADAR commander.

This allows 5-4 ADAR's tactical operations center the ability to track the engagement and confirm the drone's elimination, said Verwiel.

Using the MQM-170 Outlaw, a low-cost, target drone, Soldiers participating in Operation Skyfall II demonstrated the entire process. Ground-based air defenders tracked the Outlaw with their sensors and relayed that data to the Apache pilots via the TOC, allowing the aviators to seek-and-destroy the threat.

The Apache crews successfully engaged three Outlaw drones, destroying each one.

Official tactics, techniques and procedures for detecting and engaging counter-UASs are still being refined with every iteration of Skyfall. However, Operation Skyfall II demonstrated how ground-based air defense units and aviation assets can generate more defensive fire options for senior commanders, sustaining integrated defensive fires in contested conditions across the European and African theaters.

"What's important about Skyfall is the integration with the air defenders and the protection warfighting function for NATO," said U.S. Army Maj. Tyler Jamison, 2-159th AR, 12th CAB operations officer.

Jamison added that working with air defense, "has helped us operationalize what it means to destroy a drone."