Every year rogue drones cause millions in damage. The R&S®ARDRONIS system provides efficient and reliable protection

German Federal Police relies on R&S®ARDRONIS

There are strict limitations on the commercial use of unmanned aerial systems (UAS), but that doesn't stop amateur video makers, curious spectators, industrial spies and other electronic-savvy criminals. Mountain rescue helicopter flights have been canceled due to quadcopters zooming around in the vicinity. A drone filmed a car manufacturer's latest model during a secret show drive for a commercial. Rugged home-made aerial devices have delivered drugs and weapons inside prisons or even been used as remotely controlled weapons.

The growing hazards increase the demand for anti-drone systems such as R&S®ARDRONIS. Since its first deployment at the 2015 G7 summit in Elmau, Germany, the system has proven itself many times over during state visits and political summits. It has also been used to protect international air shows such as the ILA in Berlin.

The right package for every use case

The leanest of the four R&S®ARDRONIS packages reports when a remote control has been switched on and classifies the device type. The sensor system captures the uplink, so it can track down the drone pilot while their aerial device is still on the ground. This means at the next show drive, our car manufacturer could respond quickly and stop filming.

The second package also gets a direction fix on the drone. To precisely locate the drone and the pilot, two direction finding antennas are needed for a cross-bearing fix. Quickly tracking down the drone pilot can prevent long and costly downtimes like the one at Gatwick Airport.

The third level is the Disruption package. It blocks the control signal by emitting interference pulses precisely matched to the targeted drone, without impairing adjacent signals from other communication services. The control signal constantly hops to different frequencies within the allowed band to increase resistance to jamming, but R&S®ARDRONIS can easily follow these hops and respond accordingly.

The most complex version of R&S®ARDRONIS, the Protection package, integrates all of the above functions.

Reliability counts

The expenditure is only worthwhile if all components function reliably, which means detection with a very high hit rate, prompt warning, precise location and very few false alarms. "We may not be the cheapest", says Mayser, "but we're the best." Why else would a government agency rely on R&S®ARDRONIS? For Mayser, one aspect of openness is not giving customers false expectations. He points out that R&S®ARDRONIS is effective with radio-controlled drones. GPS-controlled and autonomous drones require different systems. GUARDION is the right system for these drones. It extends the R&S®ARDRONIS options and includes additional components such as radar or acoustic sensors and supplementary effectors.

European Commission defines uniform rules for drone defense

The growing hazards put pressure on developers and politicians. The Federal Ministry of the Interior in Germany has now clarified the scope of responsibility: drone detection is the responsibility of air traffic control, while countermeasures are the responsibility of the Federal Police. The European Commission has defined uniform rules that address safety and manufacturer competitiveness. These rules are scheduled to go into force in 2020. Then all drone operators will have to be registered with national authorities. Operators will be able to fly drones weighing less than 25 kg without prior permission under a certain number of conditions. For instance, the many commercial drones must be registered and electronically identifiable, the drone must not fly higher than 120 meters and the operator must keep the drone within visual line of sight. You don't need a crystal ball to know that the tinkerers will regard the new rules as a sporting challenge.