JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii -- The Pacific Integrated Air Missile Defense (IAMD) Center hosted its first multilateral Short Range Air Defense (SHORAD) Symposium at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, between June 23-26, 2025.
This initiative provided an opportunity to explore concerns about gaps in capabilities and responsibilities. Possible solutions and suggested actions were also offered to help mitigate challenges in relation to the emerging small Unmanned Airborne System (UAS) threat, which is one of the main growing concerns for U.S. allies and partners throughout the region.
The MSS established a framework on collective ways to detect, track and counter the threat with the intent of synergizing efforts among US joint services, allies and partners.
Collaboration for the event included groups such as the Federal Aviation Administration, U.S. Army’s Joint Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Office, the 94th Army Air & Missile Defense Command (AAMDC), and 1st Multidomain Task Force.
Also involved were U.S. Air Force Air Combat Command A3 directorate, Pacific Air Forces A3 and A4 directorates, U.S. Marine Corps 3rd Littoral Anti-Air Battalion, and the U.S. Navy Commander Naval Surface Group Middle Pacific.
The collected services worked to identify current resources they employed to counter UAS threats, to include installation force protections and policy limitations.
Attendees hailed from Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Netherlands, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, along with several other international service representatives attending virtually.
“The pace is outmatching our ability to keep up,” U.S. Army Brig. Gen. William Parker, 94th AAMDC Commanding General said during his opening comments. “The United States is looking to layer counter UAS at echelon. We don’t fight as systems; we fight in formations.”
The event included two roundtable forums that allowed open discussions and concept sharing. The first helped to facilitate open dialogue about the differences between the defense of an installation in a populated area and that of a tactical location.
The second created conversations about threat mitigation and countermeasures between military and civil authorities, exploring the capabilities to disrupt, disable, destroy, take control of, and provide alternate flight instructions to a UAS within the different classes of controlled airspaces.
“The enemy is outpacing us, and we are now playing catch-up in a chess game,” Carlos Betancourt, Pacific IAMD senior analyst. “We need to think outside the box and be able to have our leaders understand this threat. The important thing is for all of us to collaborate, coordinate, codify, exercise, and assess.”
The event concluded with attendees participating in table-top experiments while exploring capabilities, roles, challenges, and future engagements that may be necessary to support future multinational contingencies. Utilizing a fictional scenario, and notional capabilities, participants also held discussions including the passive and asymmetric employment of defensive non-kinetic options.