![A damaged drone is pictured during a military drill at the US Camp Arifjan in Kuwait City, on May 4. [Yasser al-Zayyat/AFP]](/ssc/images/2023/10/12/44364-drone-600_384.webp)
CORIAN, a modular, scalable mission technology system, protects US military personnel against the threat posed by drones or unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).
The system, selected in 2020 by the US Army's Joint Counter-Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-sUAS) Office, is part of CACI International's SkyTracker Technology Suite of C-UAS systems, which are able to accurately and reliably detect, track, classify and defeat a spectrum of UAS threats.
It comes in multiple versions so that buyers can adapt to meet different needs.
The three versions are fixed site (CORIAN-FS), mobile (CORIAN-M) and dismount (CORIAN-D).
![A depiction of the CORIAN fixed site version that provides facility protection against UAS threats to warfighters and critical infrastructure. [CACI]](/ssc/images/2023/10/12/44511-corianfixed-600_384.webp)
![US Army explosive ordnance disposal technicians set up a remotely controlled robot during a counter-UAS training exercise at Erbil Air Base in the Kurdish region of Iraq on April 24, 2020. The robot has a camera that allows the soldiers to view and handle the UAS without having to physically approach it or to potentially put themselves in harm's way. [US Army]](/ssc/images/2023/10/12/44245-drone-600_384.webp)
CORIAN-FS, meant for permanent installation on bases and at other permanent locations, "detects, identifies, tracks, and mitigates UAS threats using precision neutralization techniques that ensure little-to-no collateral damage to the surrounding radio frequency (RF) spectrum and existing communications," a US Defense Department in-house think-tank said in a November 2020 report.
Meanwhile, CORIAN-M "provides on-the-move force or facility protection against UAS threats," according to the same report. It "can be easily deployed on a vehicle or marine vessel, providing both ground and maritime convoy protection."
CORIAN-D is the variant that individual service members can carry on foot. It "is the smallest, man-packable, C-UAS attack system with the longest detection and mitigation range currently available on the market," the report said at the time.
Hunting down enemy drone operators
The flexibility and technological superiority of CORIAN systems protect US forces against the ever-changing array of drone and small UAS (sUAS) threats.
"CORIAN combines the industry's leading group 1-3 [small, medium and large] drone detection and mitigation ranges with DoD [US Department of Defense]'s most comprehensive, up-to-date C-sUAS [counter-small UAS] signal library," CACI said in a statement in 2020.
In addition to downing drones, the system enables users to locate and neutralize enemy ground controllers.
The SkyTracker technology suite provides a continuous, automated monitoring, and CACI claims it readily integrates into existing command and control or security systems.
Its architecture "has the capability to locate the ground controller, enhancing responders' abilities to engage only those operators inadvertently or unlawfully misusing their aircraft," according to the November 2020 report.
Once US forces locate enemy controllers, the opportunity to eliminate them arises.
In addition, SkyTracker can "accurately geolocate the position of misused UASs while differentiating them from other UASs in the same area," the Defense Department added.
