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Introduction
Over the last decades, Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS)
have been elded in every military service, ranging from
handheld micro-UAS to medium-sized tactical systems to
fully grown and Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA). At the same
time, the civilian market has witnessed an exponential
growth of predominantly smaller systems intended for public
and recreational use. However, the latter use case has gained
the attention of law enforcement agencies and military
force protection communities due to the increased misuse
of Commercial-O-The-Shelf (COTS) ‘drones’ near and over
airports, public events and military installations.
Recently, various industry players reacted to the emerging
demand for capabilities to defend against these COTS UAS by
developing Counter-UAS (C-UAS) sensors and eectors. These
systems are specically designed to detect, track and engage
Low, Slow and Small (LSS) ying objects, ranging from man-
portable systems such as ‘Droneguns’
1 – 3
to truck-mounted
models such as the ‘Silent Archer’
4
. NATO also reacted to this
new threat by conducting a series of studies centred on de-
fence against LSS air threats
5 – 7
and by establishing a C-UAS
Working Group with a focus on terrorist misuse of UAS.
8
However, technology is developing rapidly, in many cases,
faster than the defence industry or NATO can react. For ex-
ample, many ‘traditional’ countermeasures against small UAS
rely on electronic jamming of the command and control link
between the ‘drone’ and its remote control. Many current
COTS products are, however, able to navigate autonomously
to a given coordinate or can be controlled via a GSM network
from the operator’s mobile phone. These features make jam-
ming either completely useless, since the Command and
Control (C2) link is no longer required to navigate, or, because
of peacetime restrictions, the frequencies that need to be
jammed are often o limits, as they are used by the public.
A Comprehensive Approach to
Countering Unmanned Aircraft Systems
And Why Current Initiatives Fall Short
MQ-9: © Digital Storm / shutterstock, Quadcopter: © sdecoret / shutterstock
