The rapid development of unmanned aerial vehicles leads to exponential growth and represents an asymmetric threat situation in the context of inefficient countermeasures. Given an emerging security situation, in particular regarding terrorist threat scenarios, the role of military defense and the protection of residents and facilities in the successful fight against terrorism is of particular significance.

This includes the protection of soldiers in operational areas abroad but also of critical infrastructure in Austria, which could be a preferred target for possible terrorist attacks. The latter security measures are usually provided by the armed forces in close coordination with the executive forces in their usual professional manner. In practice, an accurate and precise response to a situation is required, especially in air strikes.

The two main objectives of the MCUAS research project are:

• Fundamental analysis of the characteristics and capabilities of UAS swarms, their strengths and weaknesses regarding threat patterns and countermeasures, as well as derived concepts and strategies for efficient defence.
• Establish multimodal methods and procedures for detecting potential attackers in restricted areas, verifying and representing potential attackers in a command and control system, and mitigating multiple threats.

Emphasis will be placed on the achievement of technological added value in relation to the state of the art and the development of a development and a utilization plan based on the evaluation of the results to provide the armed forces with a flexible and mobile use of the system. The results shall be shown in a functional technology environment based on the authority-relevant scenarios.