The world’s first fully integrated detect-track-disrupt-defeat Anti-UAV Defence System (AUDS) – developed by a trio of British companies including Blighter Surveillance Systems, Chess Dynamics and Enterprise Control Systems, and integrated/supported in North America by Liteye Systems Inc. – has been selected by the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for evaluation at U.S. airports as part of its Pathfinder Programme. With the increased availability of drones, reported sightings near airports and aircraft also rose to a rate of around 100 a month, according to the FAA.
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The number of near-misses and collisions between drones and aeroplanes is on the rise. The portion of the radio spectrum used by drones is narrow, and so a short, loud (in electromagnetic terms) blast of energy is enough to completely prevent the drone from being able to communicate with its controller.
The rising threat of small, unmanned drones near airports is becoming increasingly important to the US.
AUDS integrates Blighter’s A400 Series Ku band electronic scanning air security radar, Chess Dynamics’ stabilised electro-optic director, infrared and daylight cameras and target tracking software, and a directional RF inhibitor from Enterprise Control Systems. But the proliferation of consumer drones is making the job of policing these areas increasingly hard and raising the prospect of these unmanned aircraft crashing into their commercial cousins. The developers of the AUDS have carried out more than 400 hours of testing and believe the technology is ready to come to the aid of drone-wary airport operators in the US.
Three separate British companies, Enterprise Control Systems, Blighter Surveillance Systems and Chess Dynamics, provided designs and components for the system.
Liteye acts as the North American manufacturing and integration partner of the AUDS technology team.
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‘The FAA contacted our team following the success of AUDS at US Government sponsored counter UAV trials at the end of 2015. Two other companies are also involved in the trial: America’s Gryphon Sensors and Finland’s Sensofusion. United States law prohibits the use of drones to a height greater than 122 meters and less than 8 kilometers from the airport without prior contacting the air traffic controllers.
