AUSA 2025: V2X Tempest delivers mobile counter-UAS with dual launchers for rapid layered defense.

V2X introduced Tempest at the Association of the United States Army meeting in Washington in October, presenting a mobile counter-UAS platform built from commercial off-the-shelf components with dual launchers and an integrated detect-to-defeat suite. The company is pitching rapid fieldability and sustainment, aiming at the Army’s push to expand short-range air defense against Class 2 and Class 3 drones in contested environments.

V2X is debuting a light, mobile anti-drone vehicle, Tempest, at AUSA 2025 in Washington, which features a COTS-based architecture that detects, tracks, and intercepts Class 2 and Class 3 unmanned aircraft, using a layered, dual-launcher configuration armed with AGM-114L Longbow missiles. Company materials emphasize rapid entry into service, simplified maintenance, and integration with existing command-and-control networks, aligning with the Army’s public push to accelerate counter-UAS fielding across formations. While V2X’s event notice highlights a new “Tempest” platform introduction, detailed specifications remain limited in open sources, so the description here reflects on-the-record themes from V2X announcements and current Army counter-UAS priorities.
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V2X’s Tempest vehicle with dual launchers and counter-UAS suite at AUSA 2025. (Picture source:  Army Recognition)

The V2X Tempest is reshaping expectations for mobile short-range air defense by combining the high-end lethality of the AGM-114L Longbow missile with the rugged mobility of a 4x4 all-terrain combat vehicle. Built on a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) buggy platform, the Tempest delivers speed, modularity, and lethal precision in a lightweight configuration tailored for forward-deployed counter-UAS missions. With one AGM-114L Longbow missile mounted on each side of the vehicle’s roofline, the system introduces a new tier of fire-and-forget capability to ground-based drone defense operations.

The AGM-114L Longbow, originally designed for the U.S. Army’s AH-64D/E Apache Longbow attack helicopters, is the most advanced variant in the Hellfire missile family. It is equipped with an active millimeter-wave radar seeker that enables autonomous target acquisition and engagement in all weather conditions, without requiring continuous operator guidance. With a range of up to 8 kilometers, the missile allows the Tempest to neutralize Class 2 and 3 unmanned aerial systems (UAS), loitering munitions, and even low-flying helicopters before they can close in on high-value assets or troop formations.

The design philosophy behind the Tempest prioritizes speed, simplicity, and survivability. The 4x4 chassis allows the vehicle to maneuver across rugged terrain with ease, keeping pace with mechanized infantry or special operations units in dynamic environments. Its low profile and high agility make it ideal for rapid "shoot-and-scoot" engagements, where threats are detected, intercepted, and the vehicle quickly repositions before the enemy can respond with counter-battery fire or electronic targeting.

Rather than equipping the vehicle with a full-spectrum sensor suite, V2X opted for a single RADA-type radar, compact, efficient, and highly focused. This radar, while limited to a single direction, provides accurate target tracking and fire-control data for the missile system. It is not intended for wide-area surveillance but serves as the final engagement sensor, receiving cues from external sources in a networked battlefield environment. This approach keeps the vehicle’s electronic signature low, allowing it to remain undetected until it is time to strike.

The missile launchers, installed on either side of the vehicle’s roof, give the Tempest a balanced, elevated firing platform with wide engagement arcs. The fire-and-forget nature of the Longbow missiles means the vehicle does not need to maintain visual contact with the target after launch, dramatically reducing operator exposure time. Once the missiles are expended, the vehicle can rapidly fall back to rearm and redeploy, making it highly suitable for dispersed and fast-moving combat formations.

Behind the minimalist appearance lies a system of strategic depth. The Tempest addresses a growing gap in modern air defense doctrine: the need for affordable, fast-reacting platforms that can intercept the increasingly common drone and loitering munition threats. While high-end SHORAD (Short-range Air Defense) systems like the Stryker-mounted M-SHORAD (Medium Short-range Air Defense) offer layered protection for armored columns and bases, they are heavy and expensive and require complex logistical support. The Tempest, by contrast, can be deployed from transport aircraft, moved by light logistics, and sustained with commercially available parts, making it ideal for austere environments and allied forces with limited infrastructure.

Despite its clear advantages, the Tempest is not without limitations. The radar’s narrow field of view means it depends on a broader sensor network to provide early warning and target data. Its two-missile payload restricts engagement capacity during swarm attacks unless deployed in numbers or paired with additional support systems. Still, in the emerging era of decentralized, fast-paced air warfare, these limitations are seen more as tactical constraints than strategic flaws.

The rise of drone warfare, evident in conflicts from Ukraine to the Middle East, has exposed the vulnerability of traditional defenses to small, cheap, and numerous aerial threats. Systems like the Tempest represent a necessary evolution, small, fast, and lethal platforms that can be mass-produced, rapidly deployed, and flexibly integrated into various force structures.

By weaponizing mobility and cost-efficiency, the V2X Tempest introduces a new category of air defense asset, an expeditionary SHORAD platform designed for the edge of the fight. With its Longbow missiles, minimal crew requirements, and rapid deployment, it offers battlefield commanders a precision tool against threats too fast for artillery and too small for traditional air-defense radars.

If current trials and early deployments prove successful, the Tempest could become a key building block in future layered defense architectures, not as a standalone solution, but as a rapid-response asset in a broader kill web. In the evolving chessboard of aerial threats, the Tempest doesn’t just play defense. It moves quickly, strikes precisely, and disappears before the next move.