Counter drone systems have to detect, track and defeat many drone types arriving at once, in crowded radio environments, and the public test record shows how hard that is to evaluate. This page collects what official sources say about counter UAS testing and where simulation can help before a range day.
Public sources, checked October 14, 2026.
At Yuma Proving Ground in June 2024 the Joint Counter small UAS Office tested nine counter drone systems from eight vendors against more than 40 drone targets per session, including rotary wing, fixed wing and slow propeller types arriving in waves. Source
The sixth Joint Counter small UAS Office demonstration at Yuma ran over three weeks in April 2025 and focused on close range threats in a contested electromagnetic environment. Source
An August 27, 2025 memo consolidated Replicator 2 counter drone resources into the newly created Joint Interagency Task Force 401, which DoD describes as its lead organization for counter small UAS capabilities. Source
Per the Congressional Research Service, DoD Directive 3000.09 (Autonomy in Weapon Systems, updated January 2023) requires covered autonomous and semi autonomous weapon systems to be tested to confirm they work as intended in realistic operational settings, including against adversaries using realistic countermeasures, and retested after changes. Source
Darkstar is an early stage simulator project for replaying adversarial scenarios against autonomous systems on real terrain, designed for drone and swarm autonomy teams first. It is not a finished product: design partners help decide which scenarios it replays first, so the work fits their own evaluations.
Darkstar is an early stage simulator project for replaying adversarial scenarios against autonomous systems on real terrain. We are looking for design partners to shape what it tests first.
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