As missiles and drones take a bigger role in modern warfare, major defence contractors gathered in Washington this week to showcase their latest advances in the technologies – and systems to counter them.

The three-day Association of the United States Army (AUSA) Annual Meeting and Exposition, which opened on Monday, is one of the largest ground-based weapons shows in the US.

This year there was a strong emphasis on air and missile defence systems, reflecting growing concern about how to counter aerial threats as conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East rage on, and following reports that the US military’s missile stockpiles have been badly depleted by its war on Iran.

Lockheed Martin, one of the world’s largest defence contractors, had its latest advanced missile systems on show – the Extended-Range Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (ER GMLRS) and Precision Strike Missile (PrSM), launched from its High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (Himars), a light multiple rocket launcher.

But the main focus was its air and missile defence systems, with the latest PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) and Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) on show – used for short- and long-range air defence, respectively.

The company also had its new PAC-3 Edge next-generation missile interceptor on show for the first time after it unveiled the programme on Friday.

The PAC-3 Edge is an upgrade of the PAC-3 MSE currently in operation in Ukraine, the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific region.

It incorporates a new seeker, upgraded flight controls and a multi-pulse rocket motor supplied by Northrop Grumman, which Lockheed Martin says enhance the interceptor’s ability to counter advanced threats, including hypersonic missiles, at longer ranges and higher altitudes.

During the ceremony at the AUSA expo on Monday, Tim Cahill, president of missiles and fire control for Lockheed Martin, said the PAC-3 Edge would “fly further, faster and higher” than its predecessor, with more manoeuvrability, thrust and sensitivity. It is expected to begin testing by 2027 to be ready for deployment in 2031.

“We’re looking forward. We’re asking ourselves, what are our adversaries going to be doing in three or four or five or 10 years from now? And we’re preparing for that,” Cahill said.

“We’re going to make sure that the adversaries have nowhere to hide. It doesn’t matter what they do. It doesn’t matter what they try. This missile is going to take them out.”It comes as the ongoing war in Iran has exposed the importance of munitions stockpiles and defence against low-cost drone swarms in modern warfare.

According to an April report by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, the US military may have used more than half of its pre-war inventory for four key munitions – PrSM, SM-3, THAAD and Patriot missiles – and more than 1,000 rounds of Tomahawk and Joint Air-to-Surface Stand-off missiles during the first 39 days of its war with Iran, which began on February 28.

That situation could be “critical” for a potential western Pacific conflict, the report said, as it would take up to four years to return stockpiles to pre-war levels, which were already deemed insufficient for a war against a peer. “Building stockpiles to levels adequate for a war with China will take additional time,” it added.

In contrast, Iran has heavily relied on its low-cost, one-way attack drones – such as the Shahed-136 “kamikaze” drone – that were used to swarm and overwhelm the air defences of US military bases in the region.

The US and Gulf states have consumed and depleted multimillion-dollar air and missile defence rounds to combat the cheap drones, prompting calls for more efficient solutions.

These drone warfare tactics are also projected to be critical in the Indo-Pacific flashpoints – particularly the Taiwan Strait, where both the US and China have been building up their drone fleets in preparation for a potential armed conflict.

A satellite imagery analysis suggests that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has stationed over 200 obsolete 1960s-era J-6 supersonic fighter jets – converted into attack and cruise-missile-like drones – across six airbases near the Taiwan Strait.

In response, the US has introduced the “hellscape” concept into its Taiwan Strait strategy, aimed at deploying a massive fleet of autonomous drone swarms, loitering munition systems and marine drones to disrupt PLA amphibious invasion forces in any contingencies. It also requested US$54 billion for “autonomous and remotely operated systems across air, land, and above and below the sea” in the 2027 budget request, according to the Pentagon’s budget overview book.

To counter short-range drone swarms and incoming missiles, General Dynamics, one of the largest American land-based arms contractors, showcased its two latest air defence systems – the Leonidas Ground Vehicle (GV) and the Manoeuvre-Short Range Air Defence (M-SHORAD) Increment 4.

The Leonidas GV is a mobile high-power microwave counter-drone defence system developed as a collaborative initiative by the defence tech company Epirus and General Dynamics.

Scott Taylor, director of US growth at General Dynamics, said the Leonidas GV was developed with “drone swarm defeat” in mind and aimed to solve the “prolific problem” of being unable to use electronic warfare interruption against fibre-optically controlled drones by using weaponised electromagnetic interference technology.

In this way, the Leonidas GV could overload the internal electronics, navigation and communication systems of multiple hostile drones at once, causing them to drop from the sky simultaneously.

“One of the things that’s been very clear in a lot of the studies that are publicly discussed out there, particularly in Southwest Asia, is that the enemy can start flying enough drones at you that it overwhelms an electronic warfare or a kinetic machine gun capability,” Taylor said.

“So the Epirus-based vehicle – the Leonidas over there – that one uses electromagnetic interference to weaponise, and it can drop 50 drones at one time, single pulse, no bullets, no fratricide risk.”Also on display, the M-SHORAD anti-aircraft weapon system uses a self-loading equipment dock mounted on light, tactical and utility vehicles to provide air defence against short-range drone and missile threats for light infantry brigades.

Taylor said it had “powerful short-range air defence and counter-drone capability integrated in one”. It is equipped with Iron Wasp suicide drones that intercept incoming enemy drone attacks, as well as a 30-calibre machine gun.

“With what’s going on in Ukraine, what’s happening in the Persian Gulf in the Strait of Hormuz, there’s a lot of people talking about the challenges with drone defeat,” he said.

“Now they’re having US$30,000 drones destroying multimillion-dollar vehicles, and so trust me, we’re being approached all of the time by our allied nations as well.”The need to counter drone attacks – and a desire to reduce American casualties on the battlefield – has accelerated the integration of autonomous systems into US Army operations.

At the expo, GM Defence showcased its prototype of a “commercially derived” Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) concept, with a design based on Chevrolet’s Silverado to demonstrate potential future drive-by-wire controls, camera-based sensing and modular payload capabilities for support missions like logistics and casualty evacuation.

Pete Johnson, vice-president of integrated vehicle solutions at GM Defence, said the UGV was a “direct reflection” of how his company listened to the US Army and paid attention to the changing character of warfare.

“We’re watching closely the developments in Ukraine and the Middle East, and how the army is organising the campaign in the Indo-Pacific,” Johnson said. “And all of those observations are pointing to a very clear need: more robotic and autonomous capability to deliver operational effect and to reduce risk for our soldiers.”