Technology developed by three British firms to combat rising drone threat.Now being sold in the US and targeted at airports and homeland security.Boeing and others developing laser weapons to knock out drones.System also being tested by security forces in the UK.
It could be the answer to the rising threat of drones - a
'death ray' that uses radio waves to disable them from up to a mile away.
The system is being shown off in Las Vegas amid growing
concern over the threat from unmanned vehicles.
It uses high powered radio waves to disable drones,
effectively blocking their communication and switching them off in midair.
'If I can see it, I can kill it,' said Rick Sondag,
executive vice-president of Liteye Systems, which sells the device, and who
debuted it at the Commercial Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Expo in Las Vegas
this week, according to the Guardian.
Liteye, based in Colorado, was named distributor in the
US and Canada for the device earlier this year by its three manufacturers:
Enterprise, Chess Systems and Blighter.
Sondaq hopes to sell the system to airports and other
places where national security is an issue.
'The US government, like everyone else, has critical
infrastructure and if they don't feel like they can protect it, they'll pass
laws that will hamper progress and hamper current use,' Sondag said.
'The system may be used in remote or urban areas to prevent
UAVs being used for terrorist attacks, espionage or other undesirable
activities against sites with critical infrastructure,' the firms say.
'The Anti-UAV Defense System is likely to be an integral
part of a wider networked surveillance and defense system.
'Its soft kill capabilities make it a very attractive
option for both military, internal and border security forces.
'Where the situation demands restraint under provocation
and where active, yet discrete, deterrence is required, AUDS delivers a very
powerful message.'
Defenses sources confirmed last month the
British-designed system called AUDS – Anti Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Defense
System – was trialled in Scotland earlier this year and proved effective
against remote-controlled drones and autonomous drones which follow pre-
programmed flight paths.
The manufacturers of AUDS claim it takes between 10 and
15 seconds to target and disrupt multiple drones being flown in a ‘swarm
attack’.
The technology has been designed to intercept civilian
grade mini-drones and would not affect commercial or military aircraft, which
use encrypted communications.
The MoD and the Civil Aviation Authority have been
alerted to the threat following several reports of drones being flown over
nuclear power stations and military bases in France.
Last night military expert Elizabeth Quintana, from the
Royal United Services Institute, said: ‘There have been a number of dangerous
or suspicious incidents involving drones in restricted airspace. With the
proliferation of drones, these problems are likely to increase in frequency.
‘The Government and Civil Aviation Authority are looking
into a variety of measures to mitigate these incidents which involve both
technical solutions to spot the drones and deny access and also law enforcement
options.’
Talking about the trial of the new equipment, a defense
spokesman added: ‘The MoD regularly invites industry to demonstrate
capabilities they are developing.
'These informal open events help build our understanding
of future technology.
Several firms are developing rival systems.
Boeing recently revealed a radical new laser weapon small
enough to fit into a suitcase - but powerful enough to blast a drone out of the
sky.
The company's new Compact Laser Weapon System (LWS)
breaks down into four parts, each transportable by one or two Marines.
It can be assembled in 15 minutes, and then destroy
targets from up to 22 miles away with an energy beam of up to 10 kilowatts.
'Silent, invisible and precise—Boeing's Compact Laser
Weapons System harnesses directed energy on its targets,' the firm boasts.
The system recently reached a milestone at an exercise at
Point Mugu, Calif. by tracking and disabling a moving, untethered unmanned
aerial vehicle.
It works by focusing a laser.
'Think of it like a welding torch being put on a target -
but from hundreds of meters away,' said Isaac Neil of Boeing.
'Once we turned the laser on, it was about 15 seconds
until the drone was disabled.
If you were on the receiving end, you'd have no idea
where it was coming from or what was happening.'
The weapons is a much smaller, significantly more
portable version of the High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator (HEL MD) Boeing
revealed last year.
The weapon can be
be assembled in just 15 minutes, LWS is capable of generating an energy beam of
up to 10 kilowatts that can, depending on the power level, be used to acquire,
track, and identify a target - or even destroy it - at ranges of at least 22
miles.
It is designed specifically to track and attack moving
aerial targets such as incoming artillery rounds, and low-flying aircraft and
unmanned aerial vehicles.
U.S. Special Operations forces are currently testing LWS,
with 'multiple' branches of the U.S. military expressing interest.
HOW IT WORKS
The Blighter AUDS system combines electronic scanning
radar target detection, electro-optical tracking/classification and directional
RF inhibition capability.
It uses a high
powered 'RF inhibitor' to create radio waves to disable drones, effectively
blocking their communication and switching them off in midair.
WHAT BOEING'S LASER CAN DO
LWS is designed specifically to track and attack moving
aerial targets such as incoming artillery rounds, and low-flying aircraft and
unmanned aerial vehicles.
The weapon can be be assembled in just 15 minutes, LWS is
capable of generating an energy beam of up to 2 kilowatts.
Depending on the power level, be used to acquire, track,
and identify a target - or even destroy it - at ranges of at least 22 miles.
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