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from https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/madis-drone-killer-game-changer-americas-marines-212171

August 3, 2024 Topic: Security Region: Americas Blog Brand: The Buzz
Tags: DronesMADISU.S. Marine CorpsMilitaryDefense

MADIS: This Drone Killer Is a Game-Changer for America's Marines
The system has been long awaited as the Corps’ answer to the surging
aerial drone threat.

by Hope Hodge Seck

Summary and Key Points: The Marine Corps' long-awaited Marine Air
Defense Integrated System (MADIS) is set for accelerated deployment,
starting with Hawaii’s 3rd Littoral Anti-Air Battalion in fiscal 2025.


-Mounted on Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, MADIS is designed to
neutralize unmanned aerial threats using a combination of Stinger
missiles, jammers, and advanced detection systems.

-The system has already proven its effectiveness, with its first
successful drone kill in 2019.

-As the Marine Corps plans to acquire 190 MADIS and 21 L-MADIS units by
FY29, the system is poised to become a critical component in countering evolving drone threats in coastal and battlefield environments.

What Is Madis?
It’s shot down Iranian spy drones from the deck of an amphibious ship in
the Strait of Hormuz and hunted unmanned aircraft in the Yuma Desert.
But it’s about to be put through its paces like never before.

The Marine Air Defense Integrated System, or MADIS, the Marines’
long-awaited drone-killing machine, is set to be fielded on a fast track starting with Hawaii’s 3rd Littoral Anti-Air Battalion in fiscal 2025.
The system, which gets mounted on two Joint Light Tactical Vehicles for
a mobile hunter-killer one-two punch, has been long awaited as the
Corps’ answer to the surging aerial drone threat.

Its first kill was back in 2019, when a small single-vehicle version of
the system, known as L-MADIS, deployed aboard the USS Boxer, one of the
three amphibious ships attached to the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit.
Mounted on a Polaris MRZR, a small and lightweight all-terrain vehicle
that can fit inside an MV-22 Osprey, L-MADIS’s suite of radars, an electro-optical/infrared camera, and a high-end radio frequency
detection system pinpointed the drone, while an RF jammer severed its connection with its operators and brought it down. Military officials
would later say the cost of the successful “kill” was merely the gas for the generator used to power the system.

L-MADIS has continued to deploy onboard ships; according to imagery
published by the U.S. military, there’s one currently underway on the amphibious assault ship USS America, supporting the 31st MEU in the
Philippine Sea.

However, until now, the full-strength version of the system – equipped
with Stinger surface-to-air missiles as well as jammers and purportedly
able to neutralize some conventional aircraft as well as unmanned
systems – has not passed the prerequisite testing to enable it to be
fielded to the total force. Known as Integrated Operational Testing and Evaluation, or IOT&E, this is the battery of assessments, conducted by
Marine Corps Operational Test and Evaluation Activity (MCOTEA) that
proves a new warfighting system works as advertised, without major vulnerabilities or drawbacks. Like the Pentagon’s Director of
Operational Test and Evaluation which oversees all weapons testing for
the DoD, MCOTEA doesn’t publicize specifics about the plan and scenarios
for individual tests.

Related: Smashing drones with a standard rifle may be the best way to
counter them

But according to its testing guidebook, IOT&E requires testing in
“realistic combat conditions” and without intervention or maintenance
from contractors on site.

“MCOTEA uses a mission-oriented context in operational testing to relate evaluation results to the impact on the Warfighter’s ability to execute missions,” the guidebook states. “Focusing on the mission context during operational test planning and execution provides a more robust
operational test environment and facilitates evaluation goals.”

IOT&E will also involve Marines from 3rd LAAB, a unit created in 2022 as
part of a new category of unit designed from the ground up to focus on detection, early warning, and defense against threats from the air in
coastal regions, particularly those in the Indo-Pacific.

MADIS has taken major steps already in the last year, with a live-fire
test in December and a live-fire and system verification test in June
that involved 30 Marines from 3rd LAAB. During the most recent
evaluation period in the Yuma desert, drones weighing up to 55 pounds
and operating at altitudes of 1,200 to 3,500 feet were deployed for
MADIS to find and target, officials with Marine Corps Systems Command
told Sandboxx News. While the real-world MADIS system will be equipped
not only with Stinger missiles but also with 30mm machine gun turrets, officials said the tests so far have only involved training ammo.

“Marines provided feedback for product improvements and planned future enhancements for the system as we move into full rate production and eventually, sustainment,” Systems Command spokeswoman Morgan Blackstock
said in responses provided to Sandboxx News. “The Marines were excited
to receive a new system more capable of engaging small [Unmanned Aerial Systems] than their current equipment set.”

Due to security classification, Blackstock couldn’t say how many drones
were involved in the test and how successful MADIS was at jamming them
or shooting them down. But she did confirm the testing involved a range
of scenarios including aerial drone surveillance, reconnaissance, and interception.

Related: SOCOM and Marines will get new machine gun that breaks the mold
to replace old classic

Col. Andrew Konicki, the Marines’ program manager for Ground-Based Air Defense, came away impressed.

“MADIS is a game-changer for counter [sic] UAS,” he said in a released statement. “This system provides the Marine Corps [with] an operational advantage – increasing our lethality on the battlefield.”

During IOT&E, a two-week test period set to take place in the coming
months, more 3rd LAAB Marines will put MADIS through its full paces. And
while that’s happening, Marines at Camp Pendleton, CA will get trained
up on how to use MADIS, according to officials. New equipment training
will take about two months, Blackstock said.

While MADIS is loaded with tech to provide 360-degree surveillance and detection and a buffet of “kill” options for electronic and kinetic
drone neutralization, Capt. Taylor Barefoot, the Corps’ Counter Unmanned Aerial Systems Capabilities Integration officer, said this spring at the
Modern Day Marine Expo in Washington, D.C. that the hunter and killer capabilities have centralized operation points.

“All of that is operated from internal to MADIS, from the gunner seat,” Barefoot said of the suite of weapons.

At the same event, Barefoot and Lt. Col. Robert Barclay, the Marines’ ground-based air defense advisor for aviation expeditionary enablers,
also acknowledged a built-in weakness of MADIS and all the weapons
currently developed to fight drones. They don’t have foolproof ways to
tell the difference between friendly UAS and hostile ones. Small drones, Barclay pointed out, aren’t equipped with “friend-or-foe” transponders like aircraft are. As technology matures and UAS become more ubiquitous,
not just in the warfighting environment but also in everyday civilian
life, MADIS and systems like it will have to adapt to stay effective.
Likewise, as more systems become autonomous and hardened against
electronic jamming, MADIS will likely have to adopt more powerful
weapons to neutralize the threats it identifies.

This fall, 3rd LAAB will finally get its first 13 MADIS systems, right
as the weapon achieves initial operating capability, marking it ready
for combat. Program managers said earlier this year that the Marine
Corps wants a total of 190 MADIS and 21 L-MADIS systems.


“Full-rate production of the MADIS continues through FY29,” officials said.

About the Author
Hope Hodge Seck is an award-winning investigative and enterprise
reporter who has been covering military issues since 2009. She is the
former managing editor for Military.com.

This article was first published by Sandboxx News.

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