Next Step for Drones: Defending Against Them
Antidrone defense systems are a rising new business as military, aviation concerns mount
As commercial and private drones take off, so are instances of flying in areas they shouldn’t, such as near nuclear sites, military installations and airports. The WSJ's Robert Wall reports on counter-drone technologies.
The battle of Captieux lasted just a few seconds, and ended in a decisive defeat for the would-be invader.
The enemy drone, flying at a French military installation south of Bordeaux, was easily spotted on radar, an integrated video camera confirmed its identity, and a quick burst from a radio-frequency jammer disrupted its communication signals, diverting the drone from its target.
It was the first time a group of small British companies had demonstrated their antidrone defense system on an international stage, said Mark Radford, chief executive of Blighter Surveillance Systems, maker of the system’s radar.
As Amazon Inc. and Google Inc. consider drones for tasks ranging from package delivery to providing high-speed Internet, regulators and military planners worry that low-cost drones, which are widely available for purchase, could pose a threat to commercial aviation, vital infrastructure and even troops.
The devices, also called unmanned aerial vehicles, tend to be smaller and lighter than their military counterparts. That also makes them harder to detect. Though they have many legitimate applications, in fields such as photography and filmmaking, their rapid spread and potential for misuse has given rise to a new business: developing anti-UAV defenses.
A series of incidents in the U.S. and Europe illustrate why. Fire-fighting efforts in San Bernadino this month have been hampered by drones hovering over the flames. Helicopters used to battle the fire had to temporarily halt operations for fear of colliding with the drones, a city official said.
In August 2013, a drone overflew the BAE Systems PLC facility in northern England that builds submarines for the Royal Navy. The following month, a minidrone disrupted an election rally for German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
This past January in Washington, a hobbyist accidentally crashed a drone on the White House grounds, triggering a security lockdown. And, in April, after several drones were spotted above French nuclear power stations, France awarded contracts to small military-research teams to develop weapons its police and air force could use to bring down the bird-size flying robots.
The British government’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory says drones could be used by a potential adversary to target British interests. The agency said it is studying the problem. Meanwhile, the Brussels-based European Defence Agency, whose mission is to promote military cooperation in the European Union, is considering whether countering drones should get higher priority in the procurement plans of Europe’s armed forces.French defense-electronics maker Thales SAis working on a system that would use a radar to spot a drone, a camera to identify it, and sophisticated jamming tools “to take control of the [drone],” said Dominique Gaiardo, the company’s vice president in charge of protection systems. The company expects to have a prototype ready by the end of next year, he said.
The concerns go beyond the military. Close encounters with drones have endangered passenger jets approaching major airports, including New York’s LaGuardia and London’s Heathrow.
“An airport would very much be within its rights to introduce measures to combat the risks posed by drones,” said the Civil Aviation Authority, which oversees Britain’s commercial flights.
Experts say drones present many defense challenges. That’s partly because of the way conventional radar systems have evolved. For years, radar makers have used software to make sure small birds didn’t register on radar screen, creating clutter. Now, engineers have to develop algorithms to look at objects of that size and distinguish drones from birds.
MBDA, a consortium of European defense companies that includes Airbus Group SE, BAE Systems and Finmeccanica SpA, shot down a minidrone with a laser in May during a test in Germany. The drone was destroyed at a range of 500 meters, or about 550 yards, the company said.
That approach wouldn’t be practical everywhere. Many places where airspace is restricted, such as around sensitive government installations or sports stadiums, are in populated areas, meaning that shooting down an encroaching drone usually isn’t an option.
In the U.S., some companies are developing counterdrone systems that use microphones or radar to detect drones. U.S. authorities have used the systems to protect prisons, sporting events and government buildings, according to Drone Shield LLC, a U.S. maker of drone-detection systems . At the Boston Marathon in April net guns were on hand to capture any unwelcome drones, Drone Shield said.
A quadcopter drone with a camera. PHOTO: ZUMA PRESS
A low-cost method of intercepting drones is crucial because the aircraft themselves are relatively cheap—less than $1,000 for even sophisticated commercial models.
Blighter Surveillance’s Mr. Radford said the antidrone system with which his Chesterfield, England, company is involved costs around $1 million. In a sign of how demand is booming, he said the system has been demonstrated to potential customers in the U.S., France and the U.K. Asian customers also are showing interest.
One of the big questions around taking down drones is who and when such action is appropriate. “There is a whole lot of discussion about what the legal [framework] and regulations are. That is still being worked on,” Mr. Radford said.
Hoping to avoid potential clashes, commercial drone makers, such as Chinese-based SZ DJI Technology Co., which makes the popular Phantom series of helicopter drones, are installing so called geo-fencing technology, which blocks the aircraft from flying into airspace predefined as off limits. However, technology and air-safety experts say such systems can be disabled.
