Western Armies Are Fitting Combat Vehicles Against the Small UAS
The armored vehicle that cannot see the drone is already obsolete. Two procurement decisions from the last week of September 2026 show how Western armies are trying to close that gap… 
The armored vehicle that cannot see the drone is already obsolete. Two procurement decisions from the last week of September 2026 show how Western armies are trying to close that gap before the next war, rather than during it. The U.S. Marine Corps has ordered Anduril Pulsar-L electronic-warfare kits, a firm-fixed-price award of about $15.71 million, to give Amphibious Combat Vehicles a way to detect and jam Group 1 and Group 2 drones while moving from ship to shore and inland. Days later, Hanwha Defence Australia and Visionary Machines said they were assessing the Pandion Sentinel passive optical array on the AS21 Redback infantry fighting vehicle, a multispectral suite meant…
