U.S. and Saudi forces have concluded what U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) calls the biggest live-fire counter-drone drill ever conducted in the Middle East.
The multi-day exercise, held at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sands Integrated Experimentation Center, began on Sept. 7 at the Shamal-2 Range. More than 300 personnel took part, operating 20 different counter-unmanned aerial systems.
The timing coincided with the first regional trip by Admiral Brad Cooper since assuming leadership at CENTCOM. He visited the site alongside Gen. Fayyadh bin Hamed Raqed al-Ruwaili, chief of the General Staff of the Royal Saudi Armed Forces.
Cooper emphasized that "threats posed by the proliferation of advanced drones are a pressing challenge.” He added that collaborating closely with regional allies to innovate and adapt is now more crucial than ever.
CENTCOM has long raised alarms over Iran and its regional proxies, who in recent years have deployed thousands of one-way attack drones and missiles, killing civilians, disrupting maritime traffic, and contributing to instability across the region.
This edition of Red Sands, which is the fourth iteration since the program began in 2023, displayed progress in rapid prototyping and integrated defensive tactics. U.S. and Saudi forces linked radar and sensor platforms, among them the Signal Hunter (a wearable geolocation device) and the Buffer Passive Acoustic Detection System (BPADS), to swiftly identify simulated aerial threats.
Cooper said Red Sands united U.S., Saudi, and industry capabilities to identify top-tier systems for detecting, tracking and neutralizing modern aerial drone threats. The exercise showcased layered defense, combining electronic warfare systems with close-in responses. Simulated engagements involved U.S. AC-130 gunships, AH-64 Apache helicopters, and Saudi F-15s, Typhoons and AH-64s.
In the final layer of defense, participants tested drone defeat rounds fired from shotguns, shells loaded with 720 tungsten pellets each, designed to shred hostile drones.
According to CENTCOM, Red Sands remains a key forum for developing and testing new technologies, tactics and procedures to counter the growing threat of unmanned aerial systems, while also reinforcing cooperation and interoperability among regional partners.