Overview
- SETAF-AF announced Wednesday that it has partnered with the Army’s Global Tactical Edge Acquisition Directorate to run an accelerated capability event at Tan-Tan, Morocco to speed counter-unmanned aircraft system (C-UAS) buys.
- Initial test flights and soldier-led demonstrations are scheduled for February–March 2027 at Tan-Tan, with further evaluations planned during the African Lion exercise in April–May 2027.
- Officials set concrete performance goals for sensors and trackers, asking for day-or-night detection of radio‑silent small drones from about a mile and continuous tracking of larger drones out to roughly 5 miles and smaller ones near 2 miles.
- The Army will assess as many as 15 systems that span sensors, hard‑kill weapons, non‑kinetic defeat measures and protective hardening for early‑entry command posts and remote operating bases that operate in low‑bandwidth, austere conditions.
- Morocco’s open spectrum, uncrowded airspace and varied terrain will be used to validate systems and to help build a regional African Multidomain Training and Experimentation Center and a drone academy that could speed fielding and boost partner capacity.