NATO tests British counter-drone system in Baltic exercise

A British-made counter-drone system was one of four technologies given a central role in a NATO training exercise in Latvia last month, where soldiers from multiple allied countries used it to detect and track drones over a dense pine forest.

The system, called BlackTalon Ecosystem, is built by Enterprise Control Systems (ECS), part of the SPX Communication Technologies Group. NATO troops used it during Baltic Trust 26, an exercise that ran from August 3 to 14 in Riga, Latvia, bringing together military personnel and defense companies to test whether different counter-drone systems can work together against real-world threats.

The exercise formed the third stage of a NATO program called the Layered Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems Initiative, or LCI-X, which has run similar tests in Romania in April and in Finland and Latvia in June. Reported attendance figures for Baltic Trust 26 vary by source; Ukraine’s General Staff put the number at roughly 650 participants from 24 NATO countries and Ukraine, while Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense described the related LCI-X Crucible 3-26 component as drawing more than 1,000 people from 25 NATO countries and Ukraine.

The exercise took place as Russian drone activity along NATO’s eastern border has increased. NATO fighter jets scrambled to intercept threats over the Baltic region more than 250% more often in July compared with earlier months, according to Ukraine’s General Staff. On the final day of Baltic Trust 26, a NATO fighter jet shot down a drone over Latvia after Russian electronic jamming pushed it off its intended flight path, marking the second such incursion that week.

BlackTalon Ecosystem is built to pull in data from different types of sensors, including radar, electro-optical and infrared cameras, radio frequency detectors, acoustic sensors and electronic jamming equipment, and combine it into a single picture for operators. ECS says the open design lets militaries add new sensors or swap them out as threats change, rather than needing an entirely new system each time.

During the Latvia exercise, operators raised BlackTalon’s sensor mast more than 30 meters (98 feet) to see over the surrounding pine forest, according to ECS. The system also had to take in sensor data supplied by six other companies at the exercise and combine it with its own into a single, usable picture for commanders, a test ECS said the system passed.

“Drone activity across the Baltics and Eastern Europe has emerged as a daily operational reality, from incursions over borders to strikes on energy sites. The nations are building capability now, and our job is to make sure they can do that with systems that work reliably today, and can adapt quickly to new threats as they emerge,” said Graeme Forsyth, counter-UxS Product Manager at ECS.

Captain Joe Pisoni of the U.S. Navy, who directs the LCI-X program, said the exercise was designed to test more than whether systems can technically connect to each other.

“Technical interoperability is only the starting point. The real test is whether military and industry systems can work together in the field, support commanders and give operators the information they need at the speed of the fight. Baltic Trust 26 allows us to take promising technologies beyond connectivity and prove how they contribute to integrated battlefield capability,” Pisoni said.

ECS said in its August 25 announcement that BlackTalon Ecosystem would remain in the Baltic region for further demonstrations and army trials in the months following the exercise. The company has not provided an updated schedule since then. NATO has stated that a company’s participation in Baltic Trust 26 does not amount to an endorsement of that company’s products.