The Swedish Armed Forces have held a three-day, two-sided drone warfare exercise at the Älvdalen firing range. Around 400 personnel from 17 units fought an opponent with the same capabilities, without a script.
Units carried out live firing with FPV drones and the Mace loitering munition. Reconnaissance drones, counter-drone systems and electronic warfare were also used. The Armed Forces said industry and other government agencies took part.
John Jouper, head of development at the UAS Centre in Karlsborg, said the lessons will shape tactics against enemy counter-drone systems.
— This shows us which tactics we can use to suppress the opponent’s counter-UAS. We can then develop tactics and doctrine for drone warfare, he says.
This was the fifth year the exercise has been held. This year it added command and control support as a third element. Sweden is developing SINCC (Swedish Interoperable Combat Cloud), a cloud-based command tool inspired by Ukraine. The Armed Forces say it should be accredited within a year. Evroc is building SINCC’s cloud platform, as previously reported by NDS.
Norway is following the work. A soldier from the Norwegian Army Weapons School has spent almost two months at the UAS Centre while Norway builds its own school.