Airbus DS Electronics and Border Security (EBS) and Dedrone have concluded a cooperation agreement to combine their skills to protect lower airspace from small drones. The partners intend jointly to offer drones defense systems that can reliably detect and defend against the unauthorized entry of drones in critical airspaces.
Dedrone was founded in 2014 in Kassel (Germany) and moved its headquarters to San Francisco in the beginning of this year.
Thomas Müller, Managing Director of Airbus DS Electronics and Border Security (EBS) stated: “All over the world, incidents with universally available small drones have revealed a security gap with regards to major events or critical installations such as airports. By pooling the capabilities of Airbus, with our long-range radar and jamming functions, and those of Dedrone, with their market-leading multi-sensor platform, we have a wide deployment range covering both urban and rural areas.”
Dedrone’s CEO Jörg Lamprecht adds: “Small drones have until now conquered lower airspace as criminals discovered this technology for smuggling, espionage and terrorist attacks. We offer an effective solution for this new threat that secures lower airspace once again. Airbus’ and our systems complement each other perfectly, and combine early detection of drones in near and far fields with the ability to initiate effective countermeasures automatically.”
The drone defense system from Airbus and Dedrone uses different sensors – cameras, radars, microphones, and directional scanners – that combined can secure the airspace up to 6 miles away. The information is merged with advanced data fusion and signal analysis technologies. The result is compared to a comprehensive database of drone patterns and signatures, along with real time analysis of the control signal. When connected to a jammer, communication between the drone and the pilot can be interrupted and navigation disturbed to repel or disable the drone. Additionally, the location of the pilot can be determined for further investigation.
Dedrone also developed a product called DroneTracker – a unique drone warning system consisting of optimized hardware and intelligent software. DroneTracker is already available and is being used successfully in prison and stadium installations, to name a few. Mounted on facades, DroneTracker recognizes flying drones with various visual and acoustic sensors and frequency scanners. Detected signals such as noise, movement patterns, silhouette, and frequencies are processed and evaluated by Dedrone software. DroneTracker identifies drones reliably in a radius up to one kilometer and alerts security forces. Dedrone’s detection solution combined with the jamming technology from Airbus can automatically activate defense mechanisms.
Check out the short video below to learn more about DroneTracker: