-
MBDA Deutschland, a European missile manufacturer, announced its laser-based drone countermeasure in June 2015.
-
While not explicitly designed as an anti-drone measure, the Aerovironment Switchblade is designed to be a portable, kamikaze drone.
-
This mysterious California company has nothing more than a sketch on a website, at present. Others have come up with working prototypes. Still, it's a cute drawing.
-
Malou Tech, a French drone firm, has this drone-hunting drone that apparently can trap other drones that weigh up to 6 kilograms.
-
Drone Shield sells this $1,500 setup, an audio microphone-based drone detection system. It was used in the most recent Boston Marathon, among other locations.
-
If the DroneShield is too expensive for you, how about the Drone Net Gun? It's only $500, and works exactly how you think it does.
-
The Cyborg Unplug, while again, not a specific anti-drone measure, can also be used in this manner. Its creators tout that it "detects and kicks surveillance devices from wireless networks, breaking uploads and streams."
-
This military-grade setup by Liteye Systems "combines electronic scanning radar target detection & classification, Electro Optic (EO) tracking and directional RF inhibition capability over three independent RF bands." We're pretty sure it's out of our price range.
As drones of all flavors become increasingly ubiquitous, it was only a matter of time before countermeasures began to pop up—and they have in spades, across a spectrum of prices and tactics. These range from the high-tech (lasers and RF interference) to something as basic as a handheld "net gun."
Still, as we reported earlier this year, a shotgun can also be a particularly effective way of downing a drone.
"While kinetic counter-measures are good for battlefields, they are less than ideal for domestic scenarios," Arthur Holland Michel, the co-director of the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College, told Ars by e-mail.
"If you use a laser to burn a hole through a quadcopter hovering over a city, you will now have a heavy flammable object falling from the sky, which is extremely dangerous," he said. "Some are turning to electronic countermeasures as a way of keeping drones away without having to shoot them down. One option for countering small drones is to use jamming systems. The Secret Service is experimenting with jamming systems that would interfere with the communication system of any small drone within a given area (say, the White House). Jamming systems are an appealing option, but they have their drawbacks: they can interfere with Wi-Fi and radio frequencies."
He also specifically mentioned a new startup company, called Drone Shield, which was deployed during this year's Boston Marathon.
In an e-mail, Brian Hearing of Drone Shield told us that the company has sold about 300 of its audio detectors. (The company first began as a much smaller-scale open source project, which Ars reported on in 2013.)
So, who's buying?
"Mostly our private security providing partners, and right now Japan is our hottest market (since the prime minister's house drone incident)," he wrote in an e-mail. "We have sold some directly to some foreign government customers as well."
And where exactly are they being deployed?
"First, we don't know directly since we don't ask our resellers and security providers where they are used—we learned long ago they don't like giving out that information," Hearing said. "From the designs we've been providing it looks mostly like government- and corporate-type buildings, such as headquarters, prisons, and some VIP residences. We have done many designs for airports but the acquisition cycle there is slow. Same with nuclear installations."
Above are a few ways to take down drones that we found. Did we miss any? Let us know in the comments.
Listing image by Liteye Systems
reader comments
113