U.S. military training involving Group 2 and Group 3 unmanned aircraft was conducted between Rogers City Quarry in northern Michigan and restricted airspace over Lake Huron from September 29 through October 5, according to aviation notices reviewed by Keryex.

The unmanned aircraft operated with chase aircraft between the surface and 5,500 feet above mean sea level while moving between the quarry and Restricted Area R-4207. The restricted zone covers roughly 1,000 square miles of Lake Huron and is part of a broader military training complex used for air-to-sea operations, unmanned aircraft activity and multidomain exercises.

Rogers City’s Calcite Quarry is also used by the Michigan National All-Domain Warfighting Center as a littoral training area, allowing forces to move between land and the Lake Huron operating environment. The larger maritime range supports beyond-visual-line-of-sight unmanned aircraft operations alongside other air, surface and undersea training.

The aviation notice does not identify the military unit, unmanned aircraft type or specific mission involved. Keryex is reviewing flight activity and additional records to identify the units and aircraft involved.

Separately, the U.S. Air Force is exploring a new man-portable weapon capability for Special Warfare personnel to detect, disrupt and defeat hostile or unauthorized drones, according to contracting documents reviewed by Keryex. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s Special Warfare Program Office issued a request for information on September 28 seeking potential industry sources for a kinetic counter-small unmanned aircraft system.

The notice remains in the market-research stage and does not represent a procurement decision or contract award. Information submitted by industry could instead help shape a future acquisition strategy, performance requirements or statement of work. Responses are due October 28.

The effort follows earlier Air Force Special Warfare testing aimed at giving small teams a deployable defense against unmanned aircraft while operating away from established bases. In April, Special Warfare Airmen tested a commercial kinetic interceptor in Arizona as part of a layered system designed to detect, track and defeat Group 1 through Group 3 drones. The Air Force said the demonstration was intended to address a capability gap for small, forward-deployed teams that cannot rely on traditional fixed-site air defenses.

There is no indication that the Lake Huron UAS activity is connected to the Special Warfare counter-drone requirement. Taken separately, however, both developments illustrate the growing role unmanned systems now occupy on both sides of the U.S. military’s training problem: employing increasingly capable drones while developing portable ways for dispersed forces to detect and defeat them.