The 2 anti-drone missiles the US Navy is using to defend aircraft carriers

[Rogue Valley]

See the 2 anti-drone missiles the US Navy is using to defend aircraft carriers

Launched from destroyers, the US Navy is testing the smaller loitering missiles as a more cost-effective solution to defeating drones.

www.businessinsider.com

5.18.25
>The US Navy is arming its warships with two reusable anti-drone interceptors designed to counter aerial threats at a fraction of the cost of traditional missiles. Anduril's Roadrunner-M and Raytheon's Coyote Block 2 interceptors will be launched from Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, which will accompany the Navy supercarrier USS Gerald R. Ford on its deployment to the Middle East later this year. The anti-drone missile interceptors are designed to act as short-range loitering munitions, capable of targeting drones nearly 10 miles away.

The Raytheon Coyote Block 2 is an expendable counter-drone aircraft designed for surveillance, electronic warfare, and precision strikes. The small high-speed drone is estimated to cost about $125,000 per unit. The Coyote launches from a small container and deploys wings; it can operate for up to one hour and carry various payloads. The Coyote is propelled by a boost rocket motor and a turbine engine, allowing it to "handle reasonably large accelerations during launch, a critical feature for all tube-launch applications," according to Raytheon."

Anduril founder Palmer Luckey described the Roadrunner-Munition as "somewhere between a reusable missile and a full-scale autonomous aircraft." The roughly $500,000 Roadrunner-M, the explosive variant of Anduril's reusable autonomous aerial vehicle (AAV), is purpose-built to detect and target aerial threats. Its twin turbojet engines are capable of vertical take-off and can fast-maneuver to intercept an assigned target, or even circle around until one is acquired and land back on its ship if not.

The Roadrunner-M and the Coyote are "both specifically designed to go after UAVs," Navy Adm. Daryl Caudle, head of US Fleet Forces Command, told reporters in March. The anti-drone interceptors add more firepower and magazine capacity to protect high-value naval assets like aircraft carriers without sacrificing larger and more expensive missiles stored in the ship's vertical launchers. Costing from $125,000 to $500,000 per unit, the drone-killers come at a fraction of the cost of the cheapest interceptors with a similar range currently in use by the Navy. Because multimillion-dollar missiles and other expensive weapon systems are often used as counter-drone defense, the Navy is facing mounting pressure to address its so-called "cost-curve problem." Smaller missiles to counter smaller threats may be only part of a future solution. The UK military is deploying a new laser weapon to four of its ships. Lasers face technical issues at sea but offer the possibility of zapping an unlimited number of threats.<

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The "cost-curve problem" is an issue that is finally beginning to be addressed by US weapons manufacturers.

 

[Rich2018]

I'd have thought the navy's directed energy weapons were the future for anti-drone (UAV) defense.