Leonardo DRS announced that it has successfully integrated its Maritime Mission Equipment Package (M-MEP) on an autonomous unmanned surface vessel (AUSV), delivering a new counter-unmanned aerial system (C-UAS) capability designed to detect, track, identify, and defeat aerial unmanned threats operating in the maritime domain.
Leonardo press release
Built for rapid integration on crewed and uncrewed platforms, the solution provides a mission-ready layer of protection for ships, ports, littoral infrastructure, and expeditionary forces facing an increasingly complex drone threat environment.
“Aerial unmanned threats are evolving quickly — in range, autonomy, and numbers,” said Cari Ossenfort, senior vice president and general manager of the Leonardo DRS Naval Electronics business unit. “The M-MEP is engineered to help the U.S. Navy and allied forces stay ahead of that threat with a modular package that brings sensors, command and control, and defeat options together into one integrated capability that can be fielded fast.”
From small commercial quadcopters to more capable long-range UAS, unmanned aerial threats now represent a persistent risk to maritime operations. The M-MEP is designed to compress the time from requirement to operational capability by packaging detection through defeat into a single, scalable system that can be adapted across a range of maritime platforms — including uncrewed surface vessels – USVs.
The M-MEP combines maritime radar and EO-IR sensors with integrated networking, the SAGEcore™ software platform for AI-enabled sensor fusion and command and control, and a platform integration kit that accelerates installation across multiple vessel types.
Leonardo DRS will showcase the M-MEP integrated onto the Sea Machines STORMRUNNER AUSV at the Navy League Sea-Air-Space Symposium. Attendees are invited to visit Leonardo DRS outside the exhibition hall at Dock 9 to learn how the system can help the U.S. Navy to detect, identify, track, and defeat aerial unmanned threats faster with rapidly fieldable, modular, interoperable C-UAS protection that boosts maritime domain awareness, reduces operator workload, and extends layered defense to ships and USVs.
