SPONSORED CONTENT – Saturation instead of disruption, why drone swarms invert the logic of air defence

For years, public debate over unmanned systems was shaped by isolated incidents: single drones over airports, activist disruptions such as the 2013 protest at a German Chancellor Merkel campaign event. But this narrow focus is misleading. The core threat today does not lie in individual aerial objects, but in the orchestrated mass: the swarm

Modern conflicts demonstrate that drone swarms are already an operational reality. They exploit speed, deception and overload – and they expose, brutally, how limited point-defence systems truly are.

The end of the “point defence illusion”

Anyone seeking to understand how far developments have advanced need only look at current theatres of operation. What Israel experienced in several conflict phases, what Ukraine has faced since 2022, and what various NATO states have recently observed through suspicious UAV patterns follows a fundamentally different approach:

Coordinated approaches from deep stand-off ranges, deployment from modular carrier platforms, staggered timing, feint attacks – and ultimately the saturation of air defence.

Swarms consist of heterogeneous platforms, varying speeds, deliberately dispersed signatures and decoys. They launch from ships, mobile carriers or autonomous container platforms – often well outside the visual or radar horizon of traditional point-defence systems.

If a defender only realises a swarm is inbound once it reaches the objective, the battle is essentially already lost. Seconds matter on the battlespace; in air defence, room for effect only exists if origin and pattern are recognised before the threat arrives.

The frontline no longer lies at the perimeter, but far ahead of it.

Why classical C-UxS approaches fall short

Point-defence C-UxS systems perform excellently, but they suffer from one structural flaw: they begin their fight too late.

Once a swarm appears within line-of-sight or engagement range, time, resources and decision space are already severely constrained. Swarms do not achieve impact through precision, but through  simultaneous overload – both technically and cognitively. They overwhelm processing chains and operators.

They confuse algorithms with parallel vectors. They force decisions under maximum time pressure. When 20, 40 or 80 aerial objects appear at once, a point-defence system becomes the bottleneck.

The consequence is unambiguous:

An air-defence system that only begins its engagement at the protected object has little chance in a saturation scenario.

The operational shift: from perimeter to forward battlespace

True defensive capability is established before the first drone takes off. The recognised air picture must evolve from a point-based view to a spatial one – from reaction to anticipation.

The real defensive effort does not begin at the perimeter but within cross-domain situational analysis.

And this is where new requirements arise: air-picture data, maritime movement patterns, electronic emissions, historical activity profiles, AI-supported classification of launch probabilities and multi-domain early-warning logic.

This form of multi-domain reconnaissance is the only way to detect saturation attacks early enough –and to counter them before they achieve effect.

A situational picture that captures, evaluates and visualises data across domains generates the ability to identify swarm operations at their inception.

It is no longer about what is flying – but why, from where and how.

Software-Defined Defence as a new defensive paradigm

The traditional logic of air defence – hardware-driven, isolated, platform-centric – is no longer compatible with swarm attacks. What matters today is the ability to orchestrate sensors and data sources through software.

This is where the concept of Software-Defined Defence enters:                                              Capabilities are defined primarily through software, supplemented modularly, updated dynamically and networked across domains into a multispectral sensor federation.

Only this logic enables a defensive system that thinks faster than the attacker flies.

MDOcore – The digital backbone against drone swarms

In this new reality, MDOcore becomes a key technology. Not as a product in the classical sense, but as an operational command-and-control network that generates a real-time multi-domain picture.

MDOcore links sensors and systems from different generations and manufacturers, translating them into a consistent data model. It detects duplicate reports, assesses sources, reconciles signatures and creates a situational picture that reveals patterns – not merely objects.

Against swarms, this capability acts as a force multiplier:                                                                       Through networking diverse platforms and their data, the system can detect launch signatures early, identify unusual maritime radar clustering, or recognise RF emissions indicative of synchronised UAV activity.

With its combination of edge, fog and cloud processing, the situational picture remains stable even under massive interference. Data is pre-processed at the tactical edge, only essential information is forwarded, and the system continues to operate even when links fail or bandwidth collapses.

Thus, MDOcore shifts the defensive logic by critical minutes – and over critical kilometres – delivering decisive operational advantage.

Conclusion: Countering causes before effects occur

Drone swarms are no longer a future scenario; they are an operational present. They compel armed forces to fundamentally renew their defensive logic – away from point-defence systems and towards software-defined, network-enabled multi-domain situational awareness.

Europe and its allies stand at a crossroads:

Remain in the mindset of the 2010s, or build the prerequisites for true defensive capability against saturation attacks?

The answer is clear:

Only those who recognise patterns can break them.                                                                                      Only those who think across domains can stop swarms.                                                                                 And only those who operate in a software-defined manner can defend the airspace of the future.

MDOcore provides the decisive foundation.

More information about HENSOLDT MDOcore: MDOcore | HENSOLDT