An anti-drone system developed by a trio of UK companies is to receive its first public test by America’s Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), in an effort to protect airports from the risks of hobbyist unmanned aerial vehicles.
The system, called the Anti-UAV Defence System (Auds), looks like a mounted turret but instead of shooting drones out of the sky with bullets, it fires nothing more menacing than radio waves.
Auds has three barrels of descending sizes, which act as a set of directional radio antennas. The portion of the radio spectrum used by drones is narrow, and so a short, loud (in electromagnetic terms) blast of energy is enough to completely prevent the drone from being able to communicate with its controller.
Conventional multidirectional jamming systems work on drones, but have the downside of preventing the use of anything else in the area that relies on the same portion of the radio spectrum, such as mobile phones.
The three British manufacturers behind Auds are Enterprise, Chess Systems and Blighter, but the system is distributed in the US by Liteye Systems, a Colorado-based anti-UAV firm. Two other companies are also involved in the trial: America’s Gryphon Sensors and Finland’s Sensofusion.
In its announcement confirming the trial the FAA’s senior advisor, Marke “Hoot” Gibson (his name is given as such on the FAA’s website) said: “Sometimes people fly drones in an unsafe manner. Government and industry share responsibility for keeping the skies safe, and we’re pleased these three companies have taken on this important challenge.”
Liteye systems said: “Our Auds team is very excited to join the FAA’s efforts to counter rogue UAVs … As the legitimate use of unmanned vehicles becomes more prevalent in many industries, unfortunately this large number of aircraft also makes them readily available for illicit use. With the right technologies we can assist the UAV operator to conduct his mission, while protecting against those who wish us harm.”
The FAA hasn’t said where it will be testing the anti-UAV systems, but it will work with America’s Department of Homeland Security to study how effective their respective technologies are.
