Turkish attack operational-tactical medium-altitude unmanned aerial vehicle Bayraktar TB2 in service with the Ukrainian Air Force.
The Pentagon has completed a program to develop a low-cost mobile drone interception system. Interceptors fire duct tape that fills the propellers of small drones, causing the drones to be unable to move and fall. AiF.ru figured out what kind of drone interception system it was and how effective it was.
Drones do a lot of things today: they deliver packages, help farmers, photographers, act as an observer on construction sites and large areas, but they can be used for criminal and even terrorist purposes. For example, militants of the “Islamic State” (an organization recognized as terrorist and banned in Russia) converted ordinary quadcopters into bombers and dropped grenades for 40-mm grenade launchers from them during an operation by Iraqi government forces. Therefore, engineers are actively developing ways to combat drones.
The Americans started developing a new low-cost mobile drone interception system four years ago. The goal was to create a system to repel attacks using self-driving small unmanned aerial vehicles. Their task is to protect convoys moving through potentially dangerous populated areas.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency recently announced the completion of a drone interception system development program. In recent tests at Eglin Air Force Base, multi-layered protection has been demonstrated to prevent unauthorized drone intrusion.
Enemy drones are detected using the newly developed X-band (X-ray) radar. It automatically detects and identifies threats to unmanned aerial systems, then the radar “points” to the target for a specific interceptor drone, launches and directs the drone without operator intervention.
The developers tried to make the interception technologies add as little weight to the drone as possible, and also not be cumbersome. They ended up using thick adhesive tapes, similar to the threads that spider shoots out. Such threads fall into the propellers of enemy UAVs, and they fall. It is possible to shoot down both aircraft-type drones and helicopter drones using this method, the main thing is that the tape hit the propeller or other driving element, for example, a turbine.
The classic way to combat drones is to use systems that interfere with the navigation of the aircraft (in this case, it hovers helplessly in the air until the battery runs out). An airplane-type drone just flies straight until it runs out of fuel. In addition, in Israel, they tried to use birds of prey – hawks and falcons to combat drones.
Oleg Ponfilenok, an expert of the Aeronet working group of the National Technology Initiative, noted the disadvantages and advantages of the new method:
“There is a similar way to shoot down drones using a net. The advantage of this method is that you can bring the drone with you. If knocked down with duct tape, the drone will fall and most likely something will be damaged in it. The advantage is that the drone with adhesive tape is more maneuverable, lighter and faster. “
