Army Sgt. Maj. Kellen Rowley spoke with reporters at Fort Benning, Ga., on July 8 during the third and final week of an operational assessment of Perennial Autonomy’s Bumblebee Version 2 (BV2) quadcopter drone integrated with the company’s Automated Target Recognition software to hunt down adversary drones automatically.

Rowley said the ATR technology is trending in the right direction but noted there is still work to do. He discusses lessons learned, trends and what he would like to see in future assessments.

The JIATF-401 is working with soldiers and Perennial Autonomy to constantly iterate the inexpensive AI-enabled BV2 to become part of a layered drone defense for Defense Department bases and facilities in the homeland and overseas.