The Belgian police were seen wielding systems made by Australia’s DroneShield and Britain’s OpenWorks Engineering.
The security forces of Belgium were armed with two types of weapons against drones as part of the network for protection of U.S. President Joe Biden during his meeting this week in Brussels with Belgian King Phillipe.
Pictures of the two systems were published on social networks. The fact that the defense of leaders today includes anti-drone weapons is a reminder that the small unmanned aircraft could even be used for assassination attempts. Belgian federal policemen wielded a weapon that launches munitions toward drones as well as a device that jams and blocks transmissions using radio frequencies in order to cut the communications between hostile drones and their operators.
It was reported that the jamming weapon, made by Australian company DroneShield, can make the drone deviate from its flight path and even turn around and return to the location where it took off via radio frequencies. The weapon is said to be ineffective against autonomous unmanned aircraft, which are not connected to their controllers by a communication channel.
The second system seen with the Belgian security forces was the Skywall Patrol, made by Britain’s OpenWorks Engineering, which fires small munitions using compressed air.
SkyWall Patrol is an operationally-deployed system that gives a mobile operator the ability to physically capture a drone in a net, used in conjunction with electronic counter-measures for a layered defence, or in environments where electronic attack cannot be deployed.
It uses compressed air to launch a projectile up to the drone after the operator has targeted it using the onboard SmartScope, that compensates for drone speed and range automatically. Conventional weapons often fail to incapacitate a drone and do not offer a proportionate response to the drone threat and they can also escalate a situation when used in the vicinity of large crowds.
Sources: Israel Defense; Website