NOWA DĘBA, Poland — The interceptor drone darted across the sky, screaming toward its target, a hostile drone. Missing, it looped around for another try.
The air battle, reminiscent of old-school dogfights, ended without a kill. The “Surveyor” interceptor drone dropped out of the fight, parachuting to the ground, while the enemy threat, a replica of Russia’s infamous Shaheds, continued to fly.
New to it, Western operators are still getting a feel for the Surveyor interceptor, part of the Merops counter-drone system that has recorded more than 1,000 kills of Russian Shahed-style drones in Ukraine and been lauded by Western officials for its combat success.
Following a recent string of Russian drone incursions, some NATO forces are deploying the system to defend Eastern Europe from future attacks.
Business Insider observed American, Polish, and Romanian forces training with the Merops system at a range in southeastern Poland on Tuesday. The event highlighted how Western militaries are incorporating battlefield-proven counter-drone systems into their defenses.
US Army Brig. Gen. Curtis King, the commanding general of the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command, told reporters on the sidelines of the training event that Merops has been “highly effective and lethal against one-way attack drones in Ukraine.”
The Shahed-killer
Merops was developed by the American initiative Project Eagle. It consists of a small ground control system, launch platforms, and the Surveyor interceptor drone. It takes a crew of four — a commander, a pilot, and two technicians — to operate the whole system.
Training takes just two weeks, a significantly shorter timeline than that of more advanced weapons.
The Surveyor can either be piloted remotely or operate autonomously, using thermal, radio-frequency, or radar sensors to track its target. Able to reach speeds of more than 175 miles per hour, it carries a small warhead and destroys enemy drones by either crashing into them and exploding or detonating nearby.
Military officials said on Tuesday the Surveyor, powered by a propeller, is fast enough to intercept jet-powered drones, which Russia began fielding in combat earlier this year.
The Surveyor is also resistant to electronic warfare, a daunting challenge for drone pilots in Ukraine. The weapon has logged more than 1,900 intercepts in combat, including surveillance and strike drones. A typical engagement lasts just a few minutes.
Interceptor drones have emerged as a key air defense tool for Ukraine in recent months as it grapples with Russia’s expanded use of loitering munitions — one-way attack drones — like its Geran drones, homemade variants of the Iranian-designed Shahed. Its defense industry is producing hundreds each day. NATO is taking note of this, with leadership learning from Kyiv’s combat victories and using them to inform Western planning.
“We’re using the latest technology that’s being fought in Ukraine right now,” King said of Merops. He assesses that this system is responsible for up to 40% of Shahed shootdowns in Ukraine.
Although troops from the US, Poland, and Romania were present at the Merops demonstration on Tuesday, only the latter two have procured and deployed the system so far. It has not yet been used by NATO forces in real combat conditions.
During the demonstration, Polish soldiers launched the Surveyor from the bed of a pickup truck, the drone making a loud “pop” noise as it shot up in pursuit of its target. Unlike in Ukraine, this interceptor wasn’t armed with an explosive charge.
The target drone pretending to be a Russian Shahed survived the engagement, and the interceptor parachuted down, allowing troops to reuse it in training.
Cost-effective solutions
Merops, like other interceptor systems, offers Ukraine a cost-effective way to defeat relatively cheap drones that can be massed in large-scale bombardments. This has allowed Kyiv to preserve critical stocks of missiles for when Russia attacks with hundreds of munitions.
Watching the Ukraine war closely, Western military leaders have said that they need similar capabilities. The urgency to acquire such systems became even more acute after NATO jets fired expensive air-to-air missiles at cheap Russian drones that crossed into Polish airspace in September.
One Surveyor interceptor drone costs about $15,000, designed to be significantly cheaper than the threats it targets. Older Shahed variants, by contrast, are estimated to be worth $35,000 apiece. While NATO already has the weaponry at its disposal to defeat one-way attack drones, King stressed that the military alliance can now do so with a cheaper solution.
The Merops system is being deployed to Poland and Romania in support of Eastern Sentry, a defensive operation launched by NATO shortly after the September incident to better protect European airspace and deter potential further incursions.
The deployment comes as counter-drone technology continues to be a much-sought-after capability across Europe, which has dealt with additional drone incursions over the past two months. Whether more countries choose to procure Merops remains unclear.
British Army Brig. Gen. Chris Gent, the deputy chief of staff for transformation and integration at NATO Allied Land Command, said the counter-drone capability conversations have been ongoing for years, brought into focus by the war in Ukraine because “that’s one of the major threats.”
On the Merops system, he said that “with numerous airspace territorial incursions as well, along nations on the eastern flank, I think it’s natural you’re going to see more of this type of capability coming up.”
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