2025 Global Top 10 Key Subjects' Practical Progress in Anti-Drone Operations

In 2025, the development of anti-drone capabilities is accelerating towards systematization and practical application. Around the key capability shortcomings and technical challenges in anti-drone operations, various countries are systematically promoting the training and verification of ten key subjects, including electronic jamming multi-target confrontation, cross-domain integration of anti-drone operational chains, deployment of mobile anti-drone systems, physical interception with low collateral damage, and high-power microwave anti-swarm verification, achieving significant progress in terms of technological breakthroughs and tactical innovations. The eighth article in the "Top Ten" series on drone countermeasures, "2025 Global Top 10 Practical Progress in Key Anti-Drone Subjects", by sorting out the latest practices of the above core subjects, aims to reveal the internal logic and evolution path of the global development of anti-drone capabilities, providing reference for the construction of related systems.

1. Operational Effectiveness of Electronic Jamming in Countering Swarm Drone Threats
From January to February 2025, the U.S. Army organized a comprehensive anti-drone exercise at Fort Novosel training base, focusing on testing the capability of electronic warfare means to counter multi-target drone threats. This exercise provided a key tactical path for efficiently addressing low-cost, swarming drone threats, demonstrating that in complex electronic jamming environments, electronic warfare means can serve as a core protective capability. When combined with physical interception measures, they can form a reliable, resilient, and cost-effective air defense system, which is a key path for multi-layered and coordinated defense.

2. Cross-Domain Integration Practice of Anti-Drone Operational Chains
From February to March 2025, the U.S. military organized drills on the command chains of vehicle-mounted and mobile anti-drone systems in multiple exercises in Europe and the Indo-Pacific region, covering tactical, brigade-level, and joint operational levels. The aim of these drills was to address issues of coordination delays and fragmented operational responses caused by insufficient integration of cross-domain command links. The results showed that a unified command and control system can significantly shorten the decision-making chain and improve the efficiency of multi-domain joint defense. This practice indicates that integrating operational chains into anti-drone system construction is conducive to achieving rapid and reliable multi-effect coordination in high-intensity confrontation environments, while providing command support for the integration of "low-tech means + high-tech equipment".

3. Live Fire Drills of Mobile Anti-Drone Systems Under Integrated Air Defense
In March 2025, the U.S. Army conducted the "Project Flytrap 4.5" exercise at the Putlos training ground in Germany, focusing on verifying the operational application of portable and mobile anti-drone systems. The drill results showed that such systems can be deployed with troops on the move and quickly suppress small drone threats, effectively protecting forward troops and field air defense. Practice has demonstrated that portable and mobile systems have advantages in tactical flexibility and deployment speed, and when combined with fixed protection means, they can form a highly reliable integrated air defense system.

4. Verification of Low-Collateral-Damage Anti-Drone Physical Interception Technology
In the spring of 2025, French and European industry players conducted actual airport and base security tests using drone interceptors in NATO exercises. During the drills, low-altitude intruding drones were controlled through net capture or contact interception, effectively avoiding interference with infrastructure and civil aviation operations. The drill results showed that interceptors can achieve a high success rate in complex urban terrain with minimal collateral damage, making them suitable for civilian and airport scenarios. This practice indicates that low-collateral-damage physical interception means still have irreplaceable value in urban and civilian environments, and can be integrated with high-tech detection and jamming systems to build a low-cost and reliable multi-layered protection network.

5. Construction of Regional Anti-Drone Radio Frequency Suppression Capability
In April 2025, the British Army completed tests of the RF-DEW radio frequency directed energy system at the Manorbier Air Defense Range in Wales, locking onto and suppressing multiple drone swarms. The drill results showed that the system can disable the communication and control of swarm targets in a short period of time. Practice has demonstrated that radio frequency directed energy means have obvious advantages in dealing with densely packed, low-cost swarm targets, and can be combined with physical protection and laser interception systems to achieve regional and multi-layered defense. This method provides a reliable and resilient solution for future joint air defense and rapid response.

6. Near-Field Protection Against Drones in Law Enforcement and Airport Security
From May 12 to 15, 2025, INTERPOL and the Spanish National Police jointly held the IDICE drill in Seville, focusing on the handling of drone threats in urban and airport near-fields. Practice has shown that low-side-effect disposal means have irreplaceable value in urban environments and can be coordinated with electronic suppression and fire interception to achieve hierarchical and reliable urban low-altitude protection.

7. Passive Physical Protection for Fixed Targets Against Drones
In the first half of 2025, Ukraine chose to deploy anti-drone protection nets on energy facilities, ammunition depots, and military vehicle systems, successfully detonating or entangling incoming drones in actual combat on multiple occasions, effectively reducing damage effects. This practice indicates that in the face of increasingly complex and low-cost drone threats, passive defense means based on physical interception still have irreplaceable value. They effectively solve the problem of insufficient reliability of terminal protection in environments where electronic warfare is subject to interference, and can achieve normalized and wide-coverage three-dimensional protection of key targets at a relatively low cost, especially suitable for the continuous defense needs of fixed facilities and key equipment. It also shows that in dynamic confrontations, the effective integration of "low-tech means" with high-tech equipment is one of the key paths to achieving reliable and resilient air defense.

8. Suppression Effectiveness of High-Power Microwave Systems on Swarm Drones
From June to July 2025, the United States used the IFPC-HPM high-power microwave system to counter drone swarms in joint exercises with allies. The drill adopted a "regional irradiation + multi-target verification" mode to electronically suppress group drones. The drill results showed that high-power microwaves can disable the electronic systems of multiple drones in a short time, significantly improving the efficiency of swarm suppression. This means aims to solve the problems of insufficient interception efficiency and cost imbalance of traditional point defense weapons against large-scale, low-cost drone swarms. Practice has shown that such range-based soft/hard kill means can be combined with physical protection, laser, or mobile systems to achieve regional and three-dimensional defense capabilities.

9. Verification of Air Platforms' Mobile Strike Capability Against Drones
In August 2025, during the "Flyswatter Operation" exercise, the U.S. military's AH-64E Apache attack helicopters completed the tasks of detecting, tracking, and striking small drones. The drill showed that air-to-air platforms have unique advantages in mobility and firepower flexibility, and can serve as an air supplement to the multi-layered air defense system. This capability focuses on solving the problem of continuous tracking and precise strike of low-to-medium altitude, highly mobile drone targets within the blind zones of traditional ground air defense fire coverage. Practice has shown that air-to-air countermeasure capabilities need to be combined with data sharing and cross-service linkage to maintain continuous effectiveness in high-intensity confrontations, and coordination with low-tech means can improve overall defense reliability.

10. Application Verification of High-Power Laser Systems Against Drones
In September 2025, Israel completed tests of the "Iron Beam" high-power laser air defense system at a southern firing range, intercepting small drones and simple aerial targets. The drill showed that the system can quickly disable or damage targets and significantly reduce the cost of a single interception. This system mainly solves practical problems in anti-drone operations such as excessively high single interception costs, strong dependence on ammunition supply, and limited defense continuity. Practice has demonstrated that high-energy lasers can serve as an important supplement to fixed or mobile defense nodes, and when combined with physical interception, electronic suppression, and mobile systems, can achieve low-cost and high-reliability multi-layered anti-drone defense.

Conclusion
In summary, through a systematic analysis of the global top ten key anti-drone operational progress this year, it can be seen that anti-drone operations are showing a trend of systematic integration and multi-domain collaboration. Currently, technical paths such as electronic warfare, directed energy, high-power microwaves, laser interception, and low-cost physical protection are accelerating their integrated development. Among them, "the tactical integration of low-tech means and high-tech equipment" has become the core path for building a multi-layered air defense system with resilience and sustainability. This path can significantly improve the comprehensive defense effectiveness against high-density, low-cost, and multi-type drone threats, providing a practically adaptable development direction for future anti-drone capability building.