Counter-UAV: African militaries playing catch-up despite presence of drone threat
The proliferation of drones and concomitant decreases in prices has led to a rise in their use on the African continent. But as they find fruitful commercial uses, including infrastructure monitoring and disaster response, non-state actors begin leveraging them for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and weapons delivery purposes.
This dynamic now leads African states and armed forces to adopt and field counter-uncrewed aerial systems (C-UAS). Limited resources and expertise has delayed this effort. In addition, a lack of ‘coordination and information sharing among African countries’ has hindered C-UAS solutions from taking root. But a growing awareness of the threat of unauthorized or hostile drones makes the required geopolitical, institutional, and financial investments necessary.