The U.S. Army has tapped AEVEX Aerospace, Anduril Industries and RTX subsidiary Raytheon to provide their technologies for a special demonstration of the Launched Effects-Short Range, or LE-SR, system.
The service branch said Thursday AEVEX will bring its Atlas technology and Anduril will provide its Altius 600 multimission LE system for the demonstration.
The Army also selected Raytheon’s Coyote Block 3 LE variant for the demo. Raytheon said Wednesday it fired its Coyote LE SR variant from a helicopter during a recent test at Nine Mile Training Center. According to the company, the new Coyote variant can perform surveillance, reconnaissance and target acquisition; precision strike; electronic warfare; and communications.
What Is the LE-SR Demo’s Objective?
The LE-SR Special User Demonstration will enable infantry, field artillery and aviation soldiers to test the tactics, procedures and techniques for operating the LE-SR system.
“The LE-SR user demonstration is an important step forward in developing launched effects capabilities,” said Brig. Gen. David Phillips, program executive officer for aviation. “We are excited to work with our industry partners putting their systems in the hand of Soldiers to evaluate their performance and identify areas for improvement.”
Brig. Gen. Cain Baker, director of the service’s future vertical lift cross functional team, said direct feedback from warfighters “will inform not only continuous LE requirement refinement but also our future warfighting concepts and employment use cases.”
What Are Launched Effects?
Launched effects are a family of platforms consisting of an aerial vehicle, mission system applications, effects payload and related support equipment designed to deliver effects as a single LE or as part of a team through autonomous or semi-autonomous means.
The military expects the LE-SR system to serve as a lightweight, agile technology to deliver threat-focused capabilities.
Another LE-SR Initiative
Later in 2025, the Army will coordinate with the Aviation and Missile Technology Consortium to launch another initiative to prototype the integration of existing industry platforms for LE-SR capabilities, effects and sensors.
According to the military branch, 12 companies have expressed interest in the new initiative.
