Spain tests new anti-drone systems at army exercise

Spanish defense company EM&E Group used remote weapon stations on armored vehicles and a jamming-equipped ground robot to detect and shoot down several drones during the Spanish military’s ATLAS 26 counter-drone exercise this week at the Médano del Loro firing range in Huelva, in southwestern Spain.

The exercise was led by Spain’s Chief of the Defence Staff, organized by the Maneuver Support Command and directed by the Spanish Army’s Anti-Aircraft Artillery Command. EM&E, formerly known as Escribano Mechanical & Engineering, said it took part with several configurations of ARACNE, the counter-drone system it is developing with Indra Group through a joint venture.

Two 4×4 tactical vehicles took part fitted with EM&E’s GUARDIAN 2.0 remote weapon station as a hard-kill option, meaning they physically destroy drones with gunfire instead of disrupting them electronically. The company also fielded its FEROX 6×6 armored vehicle carrying the GUARDIAN L-HIT remote station, which it uses to both detect and engage drones, and deployed its AUNAV LINK robotic vehicle with an integrated electronic warfare package that jams the radio links between a drone and its operator to block or distort its communications.

EM&E said the systems detected and shot down several drones during the exercise, without giving numbers or details of the targets.

FEROX 6×6 armored vehicle carrying the GUARDIAN L-HIT remote station

ARACNE is one of the Spanish Armed Forces’ main counter-drone programs. The roughly 30.24 million euro ($34 million) effort covers 14 systems for the military, seven fixed and seven mobile, intended to protect critical infrastructure and military convoys, with mobile versions mounted on Vamtac ST5 tactical vehicles. The system pairs Indra’s sensors and command software with EM&E hardware, including a SmartEar radio-frequency scanner that monitors frequencies from 400 MHz to 6 GHz within about 6 km (3.7 miles) and an EM&E electro-optical station that can spot targets more than 14 km (8.7 miles) away with its daylight camera and up to 23.1 km (14.4 miles) with its thermal channel.

Indra and EM&E also demonstrated ARACNE at last year’s ATLAS 25 exercise, held at the same Huelva range from Oct. 20 to 24, 2025, where Indra said the system’s command and control software stood out for its ability to combine data from its own sensors and third-party sensors. A counter-drone system that Indra continues to develop under the ARACNE project also protects the Spanish contingent deployed with NATO in Lithuania, and Indra said in March 2026 that it had drawn interest from several countries on the alliance’s eastern flank.

The ATLAS exercises bring together Spanish military units and industry to test systems for detecting, identifying and defeating drones, and EM&E’s demonstrations this year added ground robotics and electronic warfare to the gun-based options shown on its vehicles.