Laws to allow anti-drone missiles at British airports are to be unveiled within months.
Ministers want to establish the right of civilian authorities to defend themselves and the public from malicious drone activities, such as equipping them with military-style counter-measures in addition to signal-blockers and hunter drones.
Transport Secretary Chris Grayling was due to update the Commons this afternoon on government plans following the Christmas disruption at Gatwick Airport that heaped misery on hundreds of thousands of passengers.
Among measures that could be included in draft legislation published in May are:
- New police powers giving officers rights to interfere with the movement of rogue drones and to inspect any drone to ensure it has not been “modded” to bypass safety features that could soon be required for large devices.
- Increasing the no-fly zone around airports to three miles for remote controlled aircraft, in line with calls from pilots’ union Balpa. It follows 93 near misses in 2017, up from just six the year before. The maximum height for drone flights, currently 400ft, is set to be lowered. The preparations come on top of existing laws requiring drones to be registered and users to take training.
Ministers want to get ahead of malign drone operators by preparing the ground for new hi-tech safety devices that have yet to reach the market. These include geo-fences, where drones are programmed to avoid no-fly zones by using GPS co-ordinates or ground transmitters.
But police powers of inspection will be necessary to allow officers to check that drones comply with the law and that users have not disabled safety features.
And, ultimately, if a drone is modified with the intention of causing disruption or risk to life, they may have to be brought down with weapons such as shotguns, specialist hunt-and-destroy drones and missiles.
Last week it emerged that Heathrow and Gatwick are spending millions of pounds on anti-drone measures, thought to include the Israeli-designed Drone Dome, which can detect and jam communications between a drone and its operator. An official said: “The drone threat came of age when they were used in Mosul to deliver bombs. But Gatwick highlighted a different threat, which is to create chaos rather than deliver ordnance. It is an international problem but we want to become world leaders in solving it.”
No culprit has yet been identified for the Gatwick drone sightings that disrupted 1,000 flights between December 19 and 21. Police are understood to have “a long list” of potential suspects and no arrests are imminent.
