MBDA has announced at Eurosatory that its Licorne pocket air defence command and control (C2) system has become the first fielded C2 to integrate anti-drone resources alongside traditional air defence assets, such as gun and missile systems.

Licorne is a lightweight, highly mobile C2 solution with the ability to co-ordinate very short-range air defence (VSHORAD) systems, such as those of the Mistral family. It is derived from the I-MCP and PCP systems family currently in use with armed forces in export markets, using the same software components, architecture and human machine interfaces (HMI).

In order to deliver an effective response to the emergence of asymmetric threats, and particularly mini-drone attacks on deployed ground-to-air assets or other military assets inside the protected zone, Licorne can now also deploy anti-drone measures, and co-ordinate them with the traditional air defence assets.

To achieve this, MBDA has supplemented its C2 with a set of data link detectors and jammers originally developed to provide security for events or prisons, and which have been adapted to military needs. For detection, Licorne uses a mobile radio frequency detection unit produced by Cerbair to intercept mini-drone data link transmissions.

Once the threat has been detected and located, Licorne allows operators to activate countermeasures using a network of field-deployed jammers developed by KEAS.