The Army’s new short-range air defense system will protect combat units on the battlefield from enemy rocket and drone attacks. It will be named in honor of Sgt. William Stout, who used his body to shield fellow soldiers from a grenade attack in Vietnam. Sgt. Stout, who was killed on March 12, 1970, is the only Air Defense Artillery soldier to have been awarded the Medal of Honor, America’s highest decoration for gallantry. “The heroism of this soldier demonstrates the exact need for the Sgt. Stout vehicle,” Assistant Army Secretary for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology Douglas Bush told reporters at the Pentagon. “It detects, tracks and engages aerial threats such as [drones] and rotary and fixed-wing aircraft.” The Sgt. Stout, formally known as the Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense System (M-SHORAD), also will protect troops on the battlefield against attacks from rockets, artillery and mortars. It will use the M-1126 Stryker Combat Vehicle as its chassis, Army officials said. It will employ Hellfire and Stinger missiles and a 30-mm cannon — all guided by an onboard target-acquisition system that will be linked to the Army’s Integrated Air and Missile Defense battle command systems. The prime contractor is General Dynamics Land Systems. The Sgt. Stout is being formally unveiled Saturday during the Army’s 249th birthday celebration at the National Museum of the United States Army, located outside Fort Belvoir, Va. The Army slashed a number of air defense artillery units from its arsenal after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. The U.S. and its coalition allies had complete control of the air in Iraq and Afghanistan so Pentagon officials wanted to free up personnel needed for other units considered more relevant to the mission at the time. “The Army supposedly accepted the risk because it believed the U.S. Air Force could maintain air superiority,” according to a May 2023 report by the Congressional Research Service. After 2005, the Short Range Air Defense (SHORAD) force structure was reduced to two battalions of active-duty Avenger systems and Counter-Rocket, Artillery, and Mortar (C-RAM) batteries and seven Army National Guard Avenger battalions, officials said. However, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of air and missile platforms that can threaten U.S. ground forces in the decades since. The use of drones and other unmanned combat systems in combat has skyrocketed in recent years, with even cash-strapped countries able to mount devastating drone strikes against their opponents using cheap, off-the-shelf technology. “Fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters and cruise missiles continue to evolve, posing a growing threat to U.S. ground forces,” the Congressional Research Service said. “Given the increase in threat and limited air defense assets available to Army divisions, the Army decided to improve the air defense posture of its maneuver forces.” The ongoing war in Ukraine — where drones and indirect fire weapons have been used with devastating effect by both Ukrainian and Russian forces — prompted U.S. officials to push the development of the Sgt. Stout. The Army was able to deliver a prototype in about a year, compared to four years as is usually the case, officials said. “We developed and fielded the system very aggressively starting a few years ago,” said Brig. Gen. Frank Lozano, with the Army’s Program Executive Office for Missiles and Space. “We completed the fielding of three of four initial battalions plus the initial training battalion set at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.” The battle-tested Stryker platform will allow air defense soldiers to maneuver rapidly in combat. Built-in radar and command and control capabilities will give a three or four-man Sgt. Stout crew the ability to wield an air defense shield over fast-moving tank and infantry units in combat, officials said. “The 30 mm chain gun [on the Sgt. Stout] provides not only air defense capabilities but also self-protection capabilities,” Gen. Lozano said.
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