In recent years, drones have become increasingly popular among people of all ages. However, with the widespread use of drones, people’s concerns about drone flight management have also increased, especially to address the safety hazards and accidents caused by unauthorized or “black flying” drones. Therefore, the demand for drone countermeasures has become a necessary measure to combat such incidents. Existing drone countermeasures systems include various methods, including barriers, signal interference, sound wave influence, radio wave influence, violent destruction, and advanced technology solutions.
Barrier influence:
This method is very suitable for combating the proliferation of drones. It involves using directional sound waves or radio frequencies to target drones, destroy their hardware or cut off the communication between drones and their controllers. This interference forces drones to land or return to their origin.
Signal interference:
Signal interference is a simple and commonly used method to interfere with drones. It involves transmitting directional radio frequencies at a certain power level to interfere with the GPS signal received by the drone. Since most drones rely on GPS satellite navigation systems and inertial navigation systems, affecting GPS signals will cause drones to be unable to accurately determine their coordinates, resulting in loss of control and operational failures. Signal interference is a relatively low-cost and technically simpler method adopted by many anti-drone systems. The most popular and useful drone jammer and GPS jammer.
Acoustic wave impact:
Compared with signal interference, acoustic waves have a greater impact and cause a higher degree of damage. This method targets the hardware of the drone, specifically the gyroscope, which provides critical information for maintaining balance and stability. Researchers in South Korea have demonstrated that when the frequency of the sound waves matches the resonant frequency of the drone’s gyroscope, resonance occurs, causing the gyroscope to fail and causing the drone to fall. While this method is more accurate in affecting hardware, it may be more expensive to implement.
Radio impact:
An effective anti-drone system, such as AUDS (Anti-UAV Defense System), uses high-powered radio waves to disable drones. These radio waves can knock down drones in mid-air by blocking communication signals. The system has a long attack range and can destroy threatening drones up to 1.6 kilometers away. It has a short aiming time of only 10-15 seconds and can also launch a “cluster attack” to destroy multiple drones at the same time, posing a great threat to illegal drones.
Violent destruction:
Compared to the non-lethal method of radio wave influence, the violent anti-drone method is mainly used in military environments and is characterized by being direct and forceful. Its goal is clear: to decisively and thoroughly eliminate the threat.
High-tech:
Boeing has developed advanced anti-drone solutions, including laser cannons, which are the main tool of its strategy. The laser cannon consists of a high-energy laser mobile launcher developed by Boeing. After extensive testing, the launcher emits a powerful laser beam that can burn through the shell of a drone in two seconds. This destructive force deals a fatal blow to aerial drones. Another advantage of the laser cannon is its low operating cost and compatibility with a standard 220V power supply. In other words, just plug in the power supply and you can shoot the drone out of the air.
Physical shell:
Weapons manufacturers have also taken action against these drones. The American company SnakeRiver has launched a specialized drone bullet that can easily destroy drones when used with its equipment. Similarly, the Russian Fighting Nation has also developed a shoulder-fired anti-drone device SkyWall100, which uses compressed air to launch a net to capture illegally invading drones. However, compared with the American drone bullet, the effectiveness of the Fighting Nation’s solution is relatively limited.
System control type:
While methods of disrupting or destroying drones can inadvertently cause crashes and further collateral damage, it is critical to adopt safer methods. At the DefCon hacker conference, researchers demonstrated the ability to shoot down a Parrot drone via WiFi hijacking. The vulnerability exploits the drone’s built-in WiFi function and the open telnet port in the BusyBox real-time operating system to penetrate and control the drone.
Assisted anti-drone:
In addition to hacker-based anti-drone technology, methods for accurately identifying and locating drones are also needed. The above-mentioned ADUS system integrates Bright’s A400 series Ku-band electronic scanning air defense radar, Chase’s electro-optical pointer, visible light camera, infrared camera and target tracking software, enabling the system to detect, track and identify drones within a range of 8 kilometers, and use various technologies such as radar, FM radio, and cameras to effectively detect drones.
Navigation control:
While drones bring convenience, they have also caused countless accidents. In the final analysis, “illegal flying” is the fundamental problem. To mitigate the harm caused by drones, anti-drone systems can only act as the “police” of the drone industry, treating the symptoms but not the root cause. To prevent problems before they occur, strict supervision and control are needed, which is the fundamental solution.
