BATS counter-drone system completes integration and deployment testing
NewsJuly 15, 2026
NORFOLK, England. BAE Systems completed integration and deployment testing of its BAE Systems Anti Threat System (BATS), a counter-drone system intended to detect, track, identify, and defeat hostile uncrewed aircraft, the company announced in a statement.
The system moved from its initial concept to field testing in eight months, the statement reads. BATS is designed to provide layered protection for military personnel, infrastructure, and other assets against uncrewed threats, the company says.
Testing was conducted with MSI-Defence Systems at a secure site in Norfolk and included the integration of MSI-Defence firing technology for tracking potential threats, according to the statement. The companies also tested the system’s ability to be deployed, dismantled, moved, and re-established at another location.
The trial evaluated data collection and analysis functions intended to help operators detect, identify, and respond to uncrewed systems, BAE Systems states. BATS uses a modular, software-defined architecture to combine information from sensors with command-and-control and decision-support functions.
The program will next proceed to live trials later this summer that will include kinetic and non-kinetic countermeasures, the statement adds.
