AFRL "MATRIXed" to Counter UAS Demonstration Activities Published March 4, 2010 By Mary Rodriguez Directed Energy KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, New Mexico -- Air Force Research Laboratory participated in a counter unmanned aerial system demonstration conducted at the Naval Air Weapons Station, China Lake, California. The event showcased the lab's capacity for using laser technologies to deny UAS mission success from mobile platforms. Using a high-energy laser on the Mobile Active Targeting Resource for Integrated eXperiments, AFRL participants successfully acquired, tracked, and negated five of five UASs at tactically significant ranges. Participants employed a second system, the Mobile Acquisition and Tracking System, to demonstrate additional technologies for passive acquisition and tracking of small UASs, as well as laser engagement. The annual demonstration event serves to improve US capability in preventing, detecting, tracking, and engaging hostile homeland and theater air threats. It provides a venue for obtaining information on commercially available, improvised, and/or state-sponsored small UASs that pose a potential threat to soft targets. The primary goal is to assess the nature of these current systems in the context of various research capabilities devised for defeating them.