RESTON, Va., - As the use of drones continues to grow, so too does the risk of harm from drones to military forces and critical infrastructure globally. In this interview, SAIC’s Billy Jackson, Business Development Director, discusses how SAIC, a leading technology integrator for a broad range of higher-end, differentiated technical capabilities, provides full life-cycle counter-uas (CUAS) services and solutions, to serve a wide range of customers across U.S. federal government, state/local, and global commercial markets. Read on to better appreciate the history, context and current posture of SAIC’s CUAS technology offerings and ecosystem for government and commercial projects that support the warfighter, critical infrastructure and other customers that require best-in-breed CUAS solutions, Dawn Zoldi writes for the Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI). Continue reading original article.
The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:
19 July 2023 - Jackson, who spent nearly three decades as an officer in the U.S. army, flew Black Hawk helicopters and worked as an acquisition officer in army aviation. Now with SAIC, Jackson talks to Zoldi about how the tech integrator works to fight drone attacks against critical infrastructure.
"Sometimes we're uncomfortable talking about that, but I think we have to take those blinders off and have discussions about where our vulnerabilities are and what the actual threats could be," Jackson tells Zoldi about CUAS. "Think about large events. For example, down here in Alabama, SEC football is king every Saturday. During football season, in Tuscaloosa, that stadium's full of 110,000 people. It wouldn’t take much to cause a significant loss of life, even secondarily from a drone event, whether by trampling or whatever. Think about a drone knocking out power for a few days. That could affect revenue, commerce and the freedoms of the American people. Then there's espionage. A bad actor could land a drone on a roof of a building and, using various sensors, listen in to what's happening either electronically or audibly. The risks are only limited to your imagination."
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Jamie Whitney, Senior Editor
Military + Aerospace Electronics
