Last week, I attended the First Annual ADS Inc UAS + Counter UAS Industry Day, held at the Va Beach Military Aviation Museum. Despite pressing foul weather, the museum offered ample room for booth space as well as in the hangar and apron area for demonstrations.
Attendance was restricted to vetted government and industry members, but the individual demonstrations were quite technical and required a basic level of experience with the subject. Terminology alone would have marginalized the casual observor.
The event focused on two sides of the Unmanned Aerial System coin. There isn’t a single drone technology. Consequently, countering them requires a layered approach, with multiple technologies to go after the signals; commercial and military, as well as novel, the result of tweaking existing systems to operate outside standard parameters.
Below is an overview of the various vendors to demonstrate at the industry day.
Aeryon Labs Inc.
Aeryon Labs focused on their Sky Ranger. It flies at 50 kph but will maintain station in gusts up to 90 kph. It also offers a 25-30 min flight duration with its heaviest payload (60 x zoom EO Offering the ability to read a license plate at 1500m) but can remain aloft for up to 50 min with lighter payload (FLIR Tau 2 EO/IR sensor).
Optimized to fly with tablet and stylus and boasting a 256 bit encryption datalink, it can also be controlled with a joystick.
The Sky Ranger offers a 120 to -20 deg operational window and integrates an auto landing using Sonar which kicks in at 10’ above the deck.
MyDefence
MyDefense is a Danish firm which offers the Wingman 100, a TRL 9, manwearable UAS detection system. It is currently in use with US prisons and EU militaries.
It is an RF detector with a 60 deg directional antenna and a max range of 1000m. It offers general direction detection by turning the body and compares signals to a limited library (recreational systems are absent). When a signal is detected, the Wingman calls out “drone” or “controller”. It also offers light and vibration alert features.
They are currently working with JIEDDO to introduce the Wingman 101 which features an Aluminum backplate and removable battery. This model will also connect to common military batteries and will pertain up to 3 days.
Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin demonstrated their Indago 2 VTOL quadcopter. It can be folded up and transported in two Kevlar reinforced transport cases.
The Indago 2 offers the DUO+, ION30X, and dual IR sensors (NIIRS 8 at 400m) as hotswapplable payloads and will remain aloft for up to 50 min at a range of 2km and an operating altitude of 10-500’ AGL.
Batelle
Batelle’s Drone Defender is a handheld man-portable directional jammer, resembling the point and shoot operation of a rifle, which breaks the communication between the drone and controller and disrupt the GPS signal. The range is up to 400m.
Rohde & Schwarz
Rohde & Schwarz brought out their demo van which incorporates a full suite of EW/SIGINT capabilities.
Included in the van’s various capabilities is the Ardronis system which looks at 8 MHz of bandwidth at a time, searching for signal characteristics indicative of a UAS. In addition to geolocation of the signal, it can then characterize the signal using its onboard library. Library Data is updated quarterly. However, new drones can be added manually or via signal capture and classification.
AeroVironment
Aerovironmemt flew their Puma SUAS System, outfitted with the new I45 payload which adds a low level light camera with improved illumination over the I25. In fact, the I45 payload offers NIIRS 9+ at 1000m oblique.
The Puma boasts 2.5 hours of flight time and 20km LOS range, although there is also a 3 hour battery. It features auto land which allows it to essentially come straight down into a small area.
Dedrone
Dedrone’s DroneTracker is designed tospecifically go after commercial drones which are the most prolific form of UAS. It can be mounted to windows or building facades to identify approaching drones via visual, acoustic and frequency sensors. In addition to characterizing approaching drones, the system can tip and cue other sensors such as cameras.
FLIR
FLIR discussed their sensor packages as well as their PD-100 Personal Reconnaissance System, which includes the pocket sized Black Hornet 2 sensor, boasting EO or EO/IR sensors. The entire system weighs just 1.3 kg.
The Black Hornet 2 Offers 25 min flight time, 1.6 km LOS data link range and 5 mps ground speed, tolerating up 12 mps gusts.
Summary
UAS and CUAS technologies are rapidly changing. Fortunately, ADS plans to make this an annual event. If you involved in either, or both disciplines I highly recommend attending the next Industry Day.
To learn more about any of these technologies, visit www.adsinc.com.
