In light of the proliferation of drones, companies are devoting resources to technologies capable of countering unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Boeing’s introduced lasers capable of setting fires to drones, and a consortium of British technology companies have designed systems that detect, track, and disrupt drone flight via radio frequency inhibition.
Now, Airbus Defense & Space, Inc. has entered the playing field. The company is displaying their Counter-UAV System through Jan. 9 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
“All over the world, incidents with universally available small drones have revealed a security gap with regards to critical installations such as factories, airports, or nuclear plants,” said Thomas Müller, who is the head of Airbus Defense & Space’s Electronics and Border Security. “As a specialist in defense electronics, we have all the technologies in our portfolio and the integration knowledge which are needed to set up a quick-response protection system with extremely low false alarm rates.”
According to Bard College’s Center for the Study of Drones, between December 2013 and September 2015, there were a total of 921 incidents involving drones and manned aircraft in the national airspace, with 327 of those considered close encounters.
Airbus’ system uses operational radars, infrared cameras, and direction finders to scout out and analyze drones at ranges between 3.1 and 6.2 mi.
Similar to the system developed by Blighter Surveillance Systems, Chess Dynamics, and Enterprise Control System, Airbus’ system uses jamming technology to interrupt the link between the drone and its user.
“Due to the Smart Responsive Jamming Technology developed…the jamming signals are blocking only the relevant frequencies used to operate the drone while other frequencies in the vicinity remain operational,” according to Airbus. “Since the jamming technology contains versatile receiving and transmitting capabilities, more sophisticated measures like remote control classification and GPS spoofing can be utilized as well. This allows effective and specific jamming and, therefore, a takeover of the UAV.”
The system will be available in mid-2016.
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