Counter-UAS in a harsh climate: Rheinmetall shows C-sUAS capabilities at GBAD Demo Days in Finland

At the end of 2025, the Finnish Defence Forces invited participants to the GBAD Demo Days in the remote forest region of Lohtaja to showcase state-of-the-art ground-based air defence technologies. Rheinmetall Air Defence took part: the company demonstrated its expertise in countering unmanned aircraft systems (counter-UAS) and countering small drones (C-sUAS) under real operating conditions – in a harsh climate that pushed the systems to their limits.

A wide range of drones was available as targets, from fast jet drones to small quadcopters that are hard to detect.

Rheinmetall itself focused above all on the new Skyspotter. The system was developed specifically to protect critical infrastructure: it detects and defeats small to medium-sized unmanned aerial vehicles. According to the company, the platform impressed with “high accuracy, rapid responsiveness and robust performance – even under the demanding conditions of northern Finland”.

Counter-UAS as a network: sensors, command and effectors

At the Demo Days, Rheinmetall showed its full range of sensor integration, system networking and effector mix. At the centre was the Skymaster command and control (C2) system: together with a rapidly deployable multi-sensor unit on a Rheinmetall HX truck, it delivered a complete local air picture. Added to this were remote radio direction finders and a protected, decentralised C2 shelter designed to offer operators maximum safety.

The systems are modular, fully interoperable and scalable to the threat situation. Their open architecture allows a wide variety of sensors and effectors to be integrated, from directional jammers and interceptor drones to the 30-millimetre Revolver Gun, whose KETF ammunition is particularly suited to engaging drones.

Oliver Dürr, Head of the Electronic Solutions division, took stock: “The GBAD Demo Days 2025 impressively demonstrated how important partnership is for advancing modern air defence capabilities. We thank the Finnish Defence Forces for the invitation and the excellent cooperation, as well as our industrial partners and our Finnish partner Oy Telva. Their commitment and expertise made a major contribution to successfully demonstrating the performance of our systems under realistic conditions”.