The development trend of UAV technology equipment is anti-UAV technology equipment.
At present, UAV technology is developing in the direction of miniaturization, clustering, stealth and intelligence. The coordination of multiple UAVs or the integration of UAVs and manned aircraft has become the focus of global research and development. Following this trend, UAV jammer technology is also developing in the direction of mobility, flexibility, software and hardware integration, system integration and high intelligence.
In future anti-UAV operations, the miniaturization of equipment will be indispensable.
(1) Miniaturized equipment is a necessity for future anti-UAV operations.
(2) Future anti-UAV operations require the use of miniaturized equipment.
(3) Equipment miniaturization is a necessary condition for future anti-UAV operations.
Although large anti-UAV systems have advantages such as high transmission power and long range, their complexity and maintenance requirements make them unsuitable for rapid deployment and real-time protection. In addition, their fixed deployment location makes mobile detection difficult and vulnerable to attack, resulting in potential collateral damage. Therefore, we focus on combining anti-UAV systems with smaller combat platforms for flexible deployment in various fields. In addition, we are actively developing portable anti-UAV equipment to meet the needs of ground air defense and urban combat scenarios.
Interference with navigation signals will become a prominent aspect of the “soft kill” tactic, with the focus on technical means.
At present, “soft kill” systems mostly focus on interfering with drone remote control signals, and are ineffective against autonomous mode drones with remote control links turned off. However, the risk of interfering with drone navigation signals is relatively high, because drones continuously receive positioning and navigation data during flight. By interfering with drone navigation signals, changing their coordinates and flight trajectory, they can be guided to land at a designated location. According to media reports, Iran successfully captured the US “Scan Eagle” drone using this technology in 2012.
“Hard kill” means will mainly rely on directed energy weapons.
Directed energy weapons such as lasers, microwaves, and electromagnetic pulses have the advantages of fast speed, good interception effect, and high cost performance, and have become the focus of the development of anti-drone equipment, especially laser weapons, which are popular around the world due to their low cost, flexible deployment, and strong destructive power. In order to improve the drone interception capability, efforts are being made to develop more powerful laser transmitters, and explore the combination of laser weapons with traditional aircraft, artillery, missiles, etc. to establish rapid response capabilities.
The focus in the future will be on stealth drone technology.
In the future, drones will have enhanced stealth capabilities, greatly improving their long-range air defense and battlefield survivability. For example, the US X-47B drone, which has successfully conducted shipborne tests, and its successor MQ-25A both have excellent stealth performance and can perform independent aerial refueling, reconnaissance and surveillance missions. Lockheed Martin’s Sentinel drone and Boeing’s Phantom Ray drone also have stealth capabilities. Therefore, actively developing detection means such as the next generation of air defense radars and enhancing the detection capabilities of stealth targets will become a key requirement for future anti-drone operations.
Establishing a multi-level anti-drone system is an important strategy.
There are many types of drones, and it is difficult to detect and identify small and micro drones. Reconnaissance and attack integrated drones pose a serious threat to the anti-drone system. Existing anti-drone technical equipment has certain limitations. In order to ensure airspace security, especially the protection of important targets, it is necessary to comprehensively use a variety of anti-drone technologies to establish a multi-level system with long-range and short-range symbiosis, clear levels, and complementary advantages to improve the effectiveness of anti-drone operations.
“Unmanned against unmanned” will become the norm in anti-drone operations.
With the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence technology and its widespread application in the field of drones, fully autonomous unmanned combat platforms will appear on future battlefields, accelerating the transformation of warfare to unmanned and intelligent. Traditional anti-drone technologies and conventional combat methods will appear inadequate. It is imperative to develop and use unmanned intelligent weapon platforms to respond to the threat of autonomous drones in a “unmanned against unmanned” and “intelligent against intelligent” manner.
