The trench war in Ukraine is a test bed for the future of air combat: drone warfare. “Nowadays, the use of converted drones by Ukrainian military forces is a valuable tool in daily reconnaissance for infantry units on the front line, making strikes against enemy vehicles and artillery positions, as well as providing intelligence for [special operations forces] and providing constant support during patrolling missions,” Staff Sgt. Kostiantyn Denysiuk, a Ukrainian special operations forces company first sergeant, told Coffee or Die Magazine.
Last week (1st October) the Dutch military conducted a counter drone trial using SMASH 2000+ in combination with the issued Colt 5,56 assault rifle. A group of about 15-20 soldiers of all branches attended (Air Force, Marines, Army, Special Forces, Procurement Agency, Maintenance office). The group was trained before the test in the morning. Most of the soldiers were new to the system. In the afternoon the trial was conducted.
A variation of drones were shot at 75-150 meters. Both stationary and moving.
The overall result of the test was good. All drones could be shot down quickly. The MoD already published a report stating that they want to start the procurement process soon:
F. Cerutti, and M. Thimm. Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR'18), (October 2018)