FAA Selects UK System That Detects, Tracks and Disables Drones Flying Close to Airports
AUDS combines technologies from three separate companies that can eliminate the threat of unwarranted UAVs flying in dangerous airspace.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) continues to explore ways to protect aircrafts from drones flying too close to airports. The first step was calling for the registration of all drones. Now, it’s researching the ability to track and disable potentially dangerous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).
According to Electronics Weekly, the FAA has selected a system called AUDS (anti-UAV defense system) from the UK that uses three companies to eliminate the threat of a drone that is detected flying too close to an airport.
AUDS uses three companies for the three step process.
- Blighter Surveillance Systems — Its electronic scanning radar enables a drone to be spotted six miles away.
- Chess Dynamics — Infra-red and daylight cameras track the drone automatically.
- Enterprise Control Systems — A radio jammer disrupts the flight of the UAV.
The three steps of detecting, tracking and disabling takes anywhere from eight to 15 seconds, according to Blighter Surveillance Systems. “The AUDS team has carried out over 400 hours of live testing in government trials against more than 400 flown sorties of group 1 UAVs (drones under 9kg),” Blighter said.
Blighter CEO Mark Radford told Electronics Weekly that the system works in day and night and all weather conditions, while also having the ability to force a drone to land inside or outside the perimeter of the airport. AUDS also provides video surveillance and radar tracks of the drones to law enforcement so they can properly track down the UAVs and their pilots, the report states.
“The FAA contacted our team following the success of AUDS at U.S. Government sponsored counter-UAV trials at the end of 2015,” Radford said. “These trails confirmed that our production system was able to detect, track, disrupt and defeat a range of micro, mini and larger drones, even on unscripted sorties.”
More: FAA Enters Agreements to Help Identify Drones Flying Too Close to Airports
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