Small drones have become so common that they make air defense units work within a tight time frame when detection, identification and engagement can be completed within minutes instead of a projected air battle. That fact was converted into a live-flight event at Fort Hood, Texas, aimed at getting an end-to-end counter-UAS stack exercised, rather than demonstrating individual hardware.
On Jan. 29, 2026, in Fort Hood, Texas, soldiers of 6 th Battalion, 56 th Air Defense Artillery Regiment trained on a live demonstration of an unmanned aerial system. The attendance of senior leaders of III Armored Corps and 1st Cavalry Division was an indicator of how counter-drone operations have moved beyond being a technical niche operation to a maneuver demand directly related to command-post, artillery and logistics convoy protection.
On exhibit was the core architecture of Mobile-Low, Slow, small unmanned aircraft Integrated Defeat System (M-LIDS) which was mounted on the M1277 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected All-Terrain Vehicle (M-ATV) with the M153 Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station (CROWS). It was a sensors and effectors match-up: the Ku-band Radio Frequency Sensor (KuRFS) detecting and tracking sensors, the Coyote interceptor destroying drones in-flight, and close-range direct-firing capabilities with the XM914 30 mm cannon and the M240B machine gun. The drill also included non-kinetic options such as the LOTUS jammer which showed a realistic requirement to alternate between disruption and destruction based on range, airspace clutter and safety constraints. The picture was completed with a mobile air surveillance unit, which in this case was the AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel radar mounted on a ground-based M1078 Light Medium Tactical Vehicle (LMTV) in order to maintain a broader perspective, as the M-LIDS unit followed the ground units.
The value of the exercise was achieved through compelling crews to handle actual signatures. Small drones do not act as clean test targets: they vary in altitude suddenly, fly erratic patterns, and become part of the background clutter that puts a pressure on radar classification and decision speed.
Those needs are already influencing the way the Army discusses the performance. According to army officials, coyote is in the heart of its counter-drone toolkit, with 170 successful destroys in operational deployments, this has been announced by an Army officer who is briefing observers at an independent counter-drone demonstration. Coyote is linked to a larger LIDS “system of systems” approach by the same body of information, both mobile and fixed-site configuration and networking which can be integrated into larger command-and-control structures.
Fort Hood also emphasized the increased intersection between counter-UAS defense and fires enterprise. A Spc. fire support specialist. Noel Stoehr, one of the pilots of some of the one-way attack drones that served as a demonstration threat told him how difficult it is to take a terminal run with an unstabilized camera. “The drone was intuitive to operate, but the attack run requires a lot of skill because the camera is not stabilized,” Stoehr said. “Keeping the target centered is difficult as you close in. It showed how valuable AI can be for precision terminal guidance.”
That fact is important to air defenders since they base their judgment on the premise that low-cost drones are always predictable. Although the air vehicle may be straightforward, operator skill and flight profile might come to play with classification, narrow the engagement window, and put more of a premium on indecisiveness or false identification.
The broader through-line is that the more defense is layered the ground formations are taking that as a base. The Fort Hood incident considered counter-UAS to be a multi-arm issue, with sensors supplying swift choices, electronic influences influencing the conduct of the target, and kinetic choices sealing the communication, evolving with the growth in the number of drones and their usage pattern altering toward observational, targeting, and attrition.
