New study identifies 235 counter UAS products from 155 companies

The Centre for the Study of the Drone (http://dronecenter.bard.edu/publications/counter-drone-systems/) has published a new study on the counter drone market which lists at least 235 counter-drone products either on the market or under active development from 155 companies.

“The expansion of the sector in the roughly five years since counter-drone systems first appeared on the market has been stratospheric,” said the report. “In a market survey conducted in 2015, researchers at the Sandia National Laboratories identified just 10 dedicated counter-drone systems available for acquisition. Today, less than three years later, we have tallied over 200 systems on the market.”

The study found:

  • At least sixty seven systems are advertised as being capable of both detection and interdiction.
  • A majority of the systems, 177 in total, are designed for ground-based use. Thirty five systems are designed to be handheld, and 18 systems are mounted aboard a drone. Two systems consist of a combination of ground-based and handheld elements, while one system consists of a combination of ground-based and drone-based elements. Two products consist of projectiles designed specifically for C-UAS, and are therefore platform agnostic.
  • Of the 155 systems that are capable of detection, 95 appear to employ a single sensor type, while at least 60 employ a combination of one or more sensor types.
  • Roughly an equal number of systems (approximately 60) employ radar, RF detection, and EO sensors. Fifty three employ IR, while 21 systems employ an acoustic sensor.
  • About half of the 147 systems capable of interdiction rely on a single technique and half rely on two or more techniques.
  • Jamming (Both RF and GNSS) is the most common interdiction method among systems: 88 systems depend on some form of signal jamming alone, while an additional eight systems employ jamming along with another technique.
C-UAS methods Company products
Jamming (RF,GNSS or both 96
Net 18
Spoofing 12
Laser 12
Machine gun 3
Electromagnetic pulse 2
Water projector 1
Sacrificial collision drone 1

 

One of the report’s more important conclusions was: “At present, there are no commercially available C-UAS systems that are capable of differentiating between peaceful and malicious drone use. In the military domain, this could also be an issue—a C-UAS system that cannot tell the difference between allied and adversary unmanned aircraft could accidentally shoot down friendly drones.”

Picture: The Centre for Study of the Drone – where C-UAS systems have been deployed in recent years

Share this:
D-Fend advert. Click for website