Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI)
has revealed the Drone Guard – a new system for drone detection, identification and flight disruption. The IAI said that it has recently begun to sell this system to some customers, after it was also successfully tested in scenarios of simultaneous drone attacks.
The Drone Guard is also intended for civilian applications. If the customer wishes, it would be possible to defend against intrusion of drones into private areas. Recent sales have been related to protection of strategic assets.
IAI’s subsidiary, ELTA Systems Ltd., developed the Drone Guard and offers specially adapted 3-Dimensional radars and Electro-Optical sensors for detection and identification, as well as dedicated electronic attack jamming systems for disrupting drone flight.
The use of small drones has increased dramatically over the years, making them a potential threat to critical infrastructures, other aircraft and homeland security (HLS), due to their small size, low speed and low flight altitude. IAI’s Subsidiary and Group, ELTA Systems Ltd., is offering specially designed 3-Dimensional (3D) radars and existing Electro-Optical (EO) sensors for detection and identification, as well as dedicated Electronic Attack (EA) jamming systems for disrupting drone flight.
Nissim Hadas, IAI Executive VP and ELTA President said: “We have managed to pack high grade military radar and jamming capabilities into a compact, effective and affordable drone protection system. Since unveiling the Drone Guard system earlier this year we are experiencing steadily growing sales and demand of the system for military, HLS and civilian protection tasks”.
The IDF considers drones a threat which is still in its infancy but one that is nonetheless growing. Therefore, the response to it is still being developed. Both Hezbollah and Hamas have drone capabilities, and the organizations used them during the Second Lebanon War and Operation Protective Edge respectively.
Hezbollah drones flown into Israel were intercepted by Israel Air Force aircraft in recent years. A few weeks ago, a shipment of drones to Gaza equipped with quality cameras suspected of being designed to gather intelligence on IDF forces was stopped from falling into Hamas or other terror groups’ hands.
According to defense establishment estimates, Hamas and Hezbollah will use drones to try to achieve psychological gains in the form of photographing Israeli territory or military bases, and not operational achievements such as a crash on an Israeli target due to the limited ability of drones to carry explosives.
The Drone Guard is based on the ELM- 2026 family of radars meant for short (10km), medium (15km) and long (20 km) ranges, has special drone detection and tracking algorithms, and is fitted with Electro-Optical sensors for visual identification of the target.
SourceS: YNET News, Press Release
Hmmmm if you jam a Phantom 3 or 4, or for that matter an S900 or Inspire 1, unless you can somehow overpower and hack the control, I would be surprised to see the quad do anything but Hover, unless it interferes so badly that the link is lost, and it triggered the return to home function, (which in the case of a munitions carrying drone would have it’s own reward). Freaking out and wobbling all over seems a bit overly dramatic……
Still, nice to see someone is fielding this sort of equipment, because this would at least stop it in its tracks. Jamming GPS has it’s own ramifications, if an aircraft is on the same bearing as the drone, you could cause issues with the aircraft and result in “unintended consequences” and or “collateral damage” which tends to garner bad press. I can see some movie star wanting to keep paparazzi out, and installing one, and completely screwing up Hollywood Burbank and even LAX.
Conversely using GPS spoofing could cause it to go somewhere else, but you would have to be careful how you spoof or you could send it someplace you had not planned….. with the same results, and same baggage as before.
Better be very careful how you deploy this system folks, sending an airliner into the Santa Monica Mountains would not look good on your resume.