The Sentinel system has an effective targeting range of up to five kilometers, depending on the target’s size.
The British Army recently tested a new airborne counter-drone system based on swarm tactics used in the Ukraine war. German firm Alpine Eagle’s Sentinel system was part of the joint United Kingdom-United States Joint Project Vanaheim, designed to identify and quickly deploy new counter-drone capabilities.
The British Ministry of Defence stressed that Vanaheim is not “just another industry event, but rather a dynamic field-based test environment” offering potential contractors the opportunity to work directly with Army personnel. Submissions must be usable by “generalist soldiers,” portable by foot or light vehicle, and capable of countering small Class 1 drones, including agile first-person view (FPV) models.
Joint Project Vanaheim has gone through three iterations since March, emphasizing the rapidly-evolving use of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and the efforts to counter them. An anonymous Ukrainian representative recently remarked in a London briefing that UAS and counter-UAS (C-UAS) obsolescence can now be measured in just “weeks and months.” Vanaheim 4 is scheduled for Poland later this summer.
The Alpine Eagle Sentinel System
June’s Vanaheim 3, held in Germany, tested 20 C-UAS systems, including the Alpine Eagle Sentinel, which looks promising. Sentinel is an airborne system designed to overcome terrain challenges faced by ground-based C-UAS measures.
Alpine Eagle describes the Sentinel as “an air-to-air sensor and interceptor network designed to detect, classify, and intercept unmanned aerial systems.” Those UAS include small drones, as specified by Vanaheim, as well as micro-UAVs and loitering munitions.
The system’s aerial perspective allows it to cover dead space in the surrounding terrain that ground-based sensors cannot detect. Multiple Sentinels can network to provide a swarm-like defense against drone attacks. Each Sentinel drone can be armed with air-to-air kinetic munitions weighing up to 300 grams and also direct networked ground fire onto a target.
The Sentinel system has an effective targeting range of up to five kilometers, depending on the target’s size. That range can be extended by mounting Sentinel drones on fixed-wing aircraft.
The Sentinel is designed to operate in a contested environment, with AI and edge computing to discern targets in a cluttered battle space with high system redundancy. Information is shared across all networked Sentinel drones, creating a swarm. The system can be operated by a single soldier and is scalable to different needs and threat scenarios.
Alpine Eagle touts the Sentinel systems’ usefulness for protecting commercial shipping, border security, and protecting high-value assets like infrastructure and large public events, in addition to its military application.
Emerging UAS Threats
The Ukrainian source said that Russia specifically targets Ukrainian FPV teams, making them the “most hunted soldiers on the battlefield.” That fact speaks directly to those teams’ effectiveness. He also noted that Russian fiber-optic wire-controlled drones have emerged as a significant threat.
The fiber-optic wires make those systems impervious to jamming, meaning they must be shot down, disabled with direct energy weapons, or somehow have their wires cut. That Vanaheim 3 did not require a capability to counter fiber-optic-controlled drones demonstrates how quickly battlefield technology is moving, requiring countermeasures to play catch-up. The Vanaheim exercises’ frequency reflects that necessity, along with the fact that the organizers are watching events in Ukraine very closely since that theater has become the proving ground for new weapons systems from around the world.
The Alpine Eagle Sentinel system seems well-equipped to handle fiber-optic controlled drones, but it is still in the testing phase. And like any other counter-drone system, it will have to evolve to meet emerging threats in a very fluid technological environment.
About the Author: William Lawson
William Lawson is a military historian focusing on World War II and 20th century conflicts and the American Civil War. His specialty is operational level warfare, especially American amphibious doctrine. He writes on history, politics, and firearms for multiple publications and historical journals. He serves on the editorial advisory board for the Saber & Scroll Journal and Military History Chronicles and is a member of the Society for Military History and the American Historical Association. Lawson is based in Virginia.
Image: DVIDS.
