Australia has publicly demonstrated a new counter-drone capability at the Cultana training area in South Australia, marking a major step in its effort to build a layered defense against the fast-growing threat of small unmanned aircraft.
Electro Optic Systems (EOS) confirmed on December 08 that the event featured a Leidos Australia-led solution under Project Land 156. At its centre was the EOS Slinger, a compact, mobile hard-kill system designed specifically to shoot down small drones and loitering munitions.
Slinger uses the M230LF 30×113 mm chain gun firing proximity-fused airburst rounds, an efficient, low-cost way to destroy small drones. Weighing around 350–400 kg and under a metre tall, it can be mounted on light vehicles, tracked platforms or fixed sites. It carries about 150 ready rounds and can adjust its rate of fire to manage ammunition during swarm attacks.
Detection and tracking come from an Echodyne EchoGuard 4D radar, paired with a four-axis EO/IR sight that can identify targets past 12 km. The sight is decoupled from the gun, allowing continuous tracking, even during aggressive manoeuvres.
Slinger is engineered for accurate fire on the move, which is critical as drones increasingly target convoys. Recent upgrades add aided target recognition and automation to help operators manage drone swarms and distinguish real threats from background clutter.
The trial is one element of Australia’s decade-long, A$1.3 billion push to field a national counter-drone network. More than 120 systems, from handheld detectors to vehicle sensors and fixed-site jammers, are already fielded or on order.
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Post Image Credit: 7 News
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