Counter-UAS Systems Engineering and Architecture Training by Tonex
Counter-UAS Systems Engineering and Architecture Training by Tonex provides a systems-level understanding of how modern counter-unmanned aircraft system capabilities are designed, integrated, and evaluated against rapidly evolving aerial threats. Participants examine UAS taxonomy, first-person-view platforms, autonomous aircraft, swarms, low-radar-cross-section targets, multi-sensor detection, track management, mitigation technologies, command and control, and layered defense architecture.
The course also addresses the growing cybersecurity dimension of Counter-UAS operations, including protection of sensor networks, command pathways, RF data, and decision-support systems. Cybersecurity considerations are incorporated into architecture design to reduce spoofing, interference, unauthorized access, data manipulation, and operational disruption across integrated C-UAS environments.
The course uses a practical training approach that includes exercises, real-world case studies, and examples of processes and documentation used in Counter-UAS systems engineering and architecture projects.
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:
- Characterize major UAS threat classes, operational profiles, signatures, payloads, and emerging autonomous behaviors.
- Analyze radar, passive RF, EO/IR, acoustic, and SIGINT sensing technologies for Counter-UAS applications.
- Develop multi-sensor detection, classification, tracking, identification, and track-management concepts.
- Evaluate electronic, kinetic, directed-energy, and other mitigation approaches within operational and safety constraints.
- Design layered Counter-UAS architectures integrating sensors, command and control, decision functions, and effectors.
- Apply systems engineering principles to Counter-UAS requirements, interfaces, architecture development, integration, and verification.
- Incorporate cybersecurity controls into C-UAS architectures to protect sensing, communications, data, command, and engagement functions.
- Develop an end-to-end operational architecture based on the Sense → Detect → Track → Identify → Decide → Engage → Assess framework.
Audience
- Counter-UAS System Engineers
- Systems Architects
- Defense Engineers
- Aerospace Engineers
- Radar and Sensor Engineers
- RF and Electronic Warfare Professionals
- Command and Control Engineers
- Security and Force Protection Professionals
- Defense Program Managers
- Military Technical Personnel
- Test and Evaluation Professionals
- Cybersecurity Professionals
- Government and Critical Infrastructure Security Personnel
Course Modules
Module 1: Counter-UAS Threat Environment
- UAS taxonomy and classifications
- Micro and mini UAS threats
- First-person-view drone systems
- Autonomous UAV operating concepts
- Coordinated and swarming threats
- Threat mission and payload profiles
Module 2: UAS Signatures and Characteristics
- Low radar cross-section threats
- Radio frequency signature characteristics
- Electro-optical signature characteristics
- Infrared signature characteristics
- Acoustic signature characteristics
- Multi-domain signature correlation
Module 3: Detection and Sensor Systems
- Counter-UAS radar technologies
- Passive RF detection systems
- Electro-optical and infrared sensors
- Acoustic detection architectures
- Signals intelligence sensor concepts
- Sensor coverage and performance analysis
Module 4: Tracking Fusion and Classification
- Multi-sensor data fusion
- Artificial intelligence classification concepts
- Detection-to-track processing
- Multi-target track management
- Identification and confidence assessment
- False alarm reduction techniques
Module 5: Mitigation and Defeat Technologies
- Electronic attack concepts
- Navigation disruption concepts
- Kinetic interception approaches
- Directed-energy system concepts
- High-power microwave concepts
- Laser-based Counter-UAS concepts
Module 6: Layered C-UAS Architecture Design
- Layered defense architecture development
- Command and control integration
- Rules of engagement considerations
- Operational and public safety constraints
- Engage and assess architecture functions
- Installation architecture capstone exercise
Capstone Design Focus
The culminating exercise places participants in engineering teams responsible for protecting a hypothetical installation against multiple UAS threat categories. Each team develops a layered architecture that connects sensing technologies, detection algorithms, tracking functions, identification processes, decision authorities, mitigation options, and post-engagement assessment.
The architecture is structured around the operational sequence Sense → Detect → Track → Identify → Decide → Engage → Assess. Participants must consider sensor placement, coverage gaps, low-RCS targets, RF and EO/IR signatures, autonomous threats, swarms, false positives, command-and-control interfaces, mitigation effectiveness, cybersecurity exposure, operational safety, and escalation constraints.
Teams also examine how requirements and engineering decisions flow through a C-UAS program. The exercise emphasizes architecture diagrams, functional decomposition, interface definitions, sensor-to-effector relationships, decision logic, traceability, operational scenarios, performance measures, and supporting engineering documentation. The result is a defensible Counter-UAS architecture that demonstrates how multiple technologies can operate together rather than as disconnected point solutions.
Why Systems Engineering Matters
Modern Counter-UAS capability depends on much more than selecting a radar or defeat technology. An effective architecture must coordinate sensors with different detection ranges and phenomenologies, maintain reliable tracks, establish identification confidence, support timely command decisions, and connect appropriate effectors without introducing unacceptable operational risk.
Systems engineering provides the framework for balancing these competing requirements. Participants learn to consider detection probability, track continuity, interoperability, latency, environmental limitations, communications resilience, cybersecurity, safety, human decision authority, and engagement effectiveness as interconnected architectural concerns. This approach helps organizations develop scalable C-UAS solutions that can adapt as adversary platforms, autonomy, communications methods, and tactics continue to evolve.
Advance Your Counter-UAS Engineering Capability
Build the technical and architectural expertise required to evaluate threats, integrate sensors, assess mitigation technologies, and engineer resilient layered defenses with Counter-UAS Systems Engineering and Architecture Training by Tonex.