Counter-UAS News from Around the World
Army Times: This new counter-drone weapon can take down advanced drone communicators with less power, weight
Current counter-drone tools often use large-scale blasts of power to take out the radio comms between the drone and the pilot. That requires a lot of battery and can jam or disrupt friendly frequencies. The Drone Killer, made by IXI Technology and displayed at this year’s Warrior East Expo by ADS, Inc., hits both of those gaps and more. John Lopardo, adjunct director with IXI, explained that the shoulder-fired weapon weighs only 7 pounds, battery included, and has a range of 500 meters.
The Warzone: Army Buys Small Suicide Drones To Break Up Hostile Swarms And Potentially More
U.S. defense contractor Raytheon says the U.S. Army has begun buying a version of its expendable Coyote drone that can operate alone or in a swarm, along with a compact fire control radar, to bring down small hostile unmanned aerial vehicles. Since the unmanned defenders have a small warhead, the service may also be able to readily employ them as loitering munitions and the entire system could eventually take on other roles.
See an intercept on You Tube
sUAS News: DJI Enhances Geofencing Flexibility for Enterprise Drone Users
DJI, the world’s leader in civilian drones and aerial imaging technology, is strengthening its commitment to enterprise drone users with new improvements to its geofencing system. Professional drone pilots with authorisation to fly in sensitive locations can now use a streamlined application process to receive unlocking codes within 30 minutes.
You Tube: Coyote UAS and KRFS radar acquire, track and engage enemy drones
Equipped with an advanced seeker and warhead, the Coyote-enabled system can successfully identify and eliminate threat UAVs when paired with an advanced electronically scanned array (AESA) KRFS radar, which acquires and accurately tracks all sizes of UAS threats
Reuters: Yemen’s Houthis say they attacked Aramco refinery in Riyadh with drone
The Iranian-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen said it had attacked a Saudi Aramco refinery in Riyadh on Wednesday using a drone, but the oil company said a limited fire at the plant was due to “an operational incident”. “Our drone air forces have targeted the refinery of ARAMCO company in Riyadh,” read a tweet on the account of the Houthi-run television channel al-Masirah.
AINonline: Thales Hologarde To Provide Counter-UAS Ops at CDG
There are two operational requirements for Hologarde, said Michel Dechanet, product line manager, innovation solutions CUAV at Thales. The first is airport safety: protecting aircraft during approach, landing, and takeoff. The second is security: the protection of airport infrastructure. The aim is to secure Charles de Gaulle (and any future customers) from both the accidental intrusion of UAVs, as well as from an intentional attack (from a terrorist organization, for example). The Gamekeeper radar can provide surveillance of the entire external area of the airport, he said, including airport buildings and terminals. Hologarde is being tested in the airport, while Thales is also carrying out work on the radar at its Brétigny/Orge facilities, near Paris.
Newsmax: IDF: Hamas Plans to Strike Israel With Exploding Drones
As Israel moves more Iron Dome anti-missile batteries to its border with Gaza, Hamas terrorists are moving forward with plans to spread their arson-by-air attacks deeper into the country. Israel held an emergency cabinet session Sunday after another Hamas provocation over the weekend. Israel’s military hit dozens of Hamas targets in Gaza after terrorists launched an estimated 200 missiles at Israeli communities on the border.
UAS Magazine: Echodyne adds small, affordable radar to counter-UAS technology
Fresh off its Game of Drones win as part of Dedrone’s counter-UAS team, Washington-based Echodyne played an instrumental role in the competition by using its miniaturized version of the phased-array radar technology employed by the military. Echodyne’s beam-steering radar not only detects small UAS, but also has applications for drone detect-and-avoid systems and can provide high-resolution, 3-D situational awareness data for autonomous vehicles.
The State: Drone with grenades lands at property of Mexico police chief
Authorities in the northern Mexican state of Baja California say that a drone carrying two deactivated grenades landed on a property owned by the state’s security chief. The state government statement says Gerardo Manuel Sosa Olachea does not use the property in Tecate and was not present, but state police guarding it saw the drone. Sosa Olachea said Tuesday the incident was unfortunate and was the result of the state’s work against organized crime.
More coverage (including a picture) from the Baja Post
The News & Observer: Italy arrests Macedonian on terror charges, expels Tunisian
Italian authorities have arrested a Macedonian man accused of preparing for a terrorist attack. Carabinieri said Tuesday that 29-year-old Agim Miftari was training “in view of future terrorist initiatives” in places like Syria. On his Facebook account, investigators found jihadi propaganda from the Islamic State and films of armed drones. A search of his home in April turned up a drone and military garb. Miftari was served with the arrest warrant while already in detention following the April search.
Fstoppers: Dumb and Dumber: A Drone Flies Dangerously Close to an A380 During Take Off
As the jumbo jet takes off from the runway 14, the prepositioned drone films the plane passing dangerously close at about 300 feet from the tip of the left wing. The airliner belongs to the Dubai-based company Emirates. It seems to be the 4:35 p.m. flight EK702 on regular schedule to Dubai airport.
Congress.gov: H.R.6401 – Preventing Emerging Threats Act of 2018 [text]
To assist the Department of Homeland Security in preventing emerging threats from unmanned aircraft and vehicles, and for other purposes.
ExecutiveGov: Trump Administration Supports Bill to Prevent UAS Threats
The Trump administration has expressed support for a Senate bill that would authorize the departments of Homeland Security and Justice to develop, test and deploy technology aimed at countering unmanned aircraft systems that pose safety risks to the public.
Janes 360: Farnborough 2018: SteelRock Technologies launches at airshow
During the show, SR displayed its Nightfighter counter-UAV device in multiple configurations. Nightfighter identifies frequencies used by a UAV and then uses a transmission to defeat it. Instead of jamming frequencies it overrides the hostile operator’s controls, which enables the operator to initiate return-to-home protocols, deny feeds from the UAV, or force a landing.
Reuters: Russia downs drones that attacked its Syria air base: news agencies
Russia’s military said it had shot down two unidentified drones that attacked its Syrian air base at Hmeimim on Saturday and Sunday, Russian agencies reported. The attacks caused no casualties or damage and the Hmeimim air base is operating as normal, Interfax said.
More coverage from Al Masdar News
The Arab Weekly: Chinese commercial drones bring new uncertainties to old conflicts
The United States and its allies appear to have taken the venerable expression “don’t bring a knife to a gun fight” very seriously. Last year, the Patriot air defence system was used by Saudi forces in Yemen to shoot down a re-engineered Houthi aerial drone but using a sledgehammer to swat a fly was hardly efficient: It cost $3.4 million for one Patriot missile to shoot down a drone worth a few hundred dollars.
Digital Trends: Prisons are fighting back against contraband-dropping drones. Here’s how
Remember those old prison movies where contraband got snuck into prison hidden in a birthday cake? It turns out that things have moved on a whole lot since then. Here in 2018, no self-respecting prisoner is worth their ill-advised neck tattoo if they don’t have a drone to smuggle weapons or narcotics into the prison yard. To defend against this misuse of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), prison technologies company Securus Technologies is employing a smart drone detection system, called AirWarden, which can help correctional officers better monitor drone traffic in the area of their prisons.
Marine Times: The Corps wants 15 suicide drones swarming from the hands of one front-line Marine
The Corps wants to put the power of a swarm of suicide drones, also known as loitering munitions, in the hands of one Marine. It’s a plan to help boost lethality and independence of front-line troops operating in austere locations outside the striking range of manned aircraft. The thought is to get a single operator to control up to 15 suicide drones with “minimal operator burden,” Capt. Matt Cornachio, a fires project officer with Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, said during a media roundtable Thursday. And so far, the Corps has successfully tested a single operator controlling six drones at once.
Shephard: Counter-UAS High Energy Laser on display at FIA 2018 (video)
The West Australian: DroneShield locks up new anti-drone patent
Aerial drone countermeasures firm Droneshield has secured an additional patent in the U.S. covering its innovative developments in the area of acoustic detection of unwanted drones. The latest patent adds to the four previously granted U.S. patents related to counterdrone technologies that the company already holds. With the global anti-drone market projected to climb from USD$329m in 2016 to USD$1.85bn by 2024 according to U.S. based market research and consulting company Grand View Research, DroneShield’s move to protect its intellectual property seems well timed.
Wired: HOW A FLOCK OF DRONES DEVELOPED COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE
The drones rise all at once, 30 strong, the domes of light on their undercarriages glowing 30 different hues—like luminescent candy sprinkles against the gray, dusky sky. Then they pause, suspended in the air. And after a couple seconds of hovering, they begin to move as one.
Regulus: Regulus Real world GPS Spoofing Demo
You Tube: Atomic Effects on Drone Aircraft in Flight
As part of a Department of Defense effort to understand the effects of a nuclear detonations on military equipment, AFSWP (Air Force Special Weapons Program) tested aircraft and aircraft components during Operation TEAPOT in 1955 to determine how well they could withstand blast and heat produced by a nuclear detonation.