Countering drones

Drone defense

Protecting what matters — across airspace, critical infrastructure and operations.

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Transforming the future of countering drones

Redefining counter‑drone protection for people, critical infrastructure, and forces in a world of rapidly evolving uncrewed aerial systems (UAS).

The rapid spread of UAS has made drone defense a critical priority for governments, security agencies, airports, and critical infrastructure operators. Effective counter‑drone technology and a scalable counter‑UAS system must deliver early detection and identification – enabling a proportionate, lawful response in complex RF environments.

Drones have moved to everyday reality – and so have drone incidents. Across civil and military environments, readily available commercial UAS (COTS) are increasingly used for unauthorized surveillance, smuggling, disruption, and evolving attack scenarios. This makes counter‑drone technology and a scalable, layered counter‑UAS system a rising priority for airports, critical infrastructure operators, public security, and defense organizations.

Effective countering drones goes beyond spotting an object in the sky. It requires reliable detection and identification, continuous RF and airspace awareness, and decision support that enables a proportionate response – aligned with governance and legal constraints in a crowded spectrum.

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Drones are becoming part of everyday life: monitoring and protection must scale

Commercial drones are increasingly used in logistics, inspection, media, agriculture, emergency response, and industrial operations. This is positive — but it creates a new reality: airspace at low altitude is getting crowded, and the number of sensitive locations exposed to drone activity is growing. That means organizations need answers to questions such as:

  • What is flying near my site — authorized or not?
  • Can I distinguish a harmless drone from a threat early enough to react?
  • How do I protect people and operations without disrupting legitimate drone use?
  • How do I coordinate responses across security teams, command centers, and authorities?

Counter-UAS is therefore not only about “stopping drones.” It is about building continuous situational awareness, enforcing policies, and enabling a proportional, legally compliant response.

Why countering drones is becoming urgent — fast

Drone technology is evolving at high speed

What started as hobby-grade aircraft has become a mature ecosystem: high-performance platforms, cheap components, better batteries, autonomous navigation, and AI-assisted targeting. The result is a rapidly expanding “capability curve” for malicious actors.

Threat evolution is visible in:

  • Higher speed, longer range, and improved stability (harder to track, harder to intercept)
  • Autonomy and pre-programmed missions (less dependent on radio links)
  • Swarming and multi-drone tactics (saturating defenses, omnidirectional)
  • Payload variety (surveillance, disruption, contraband, explosives)
  • Low cost and high availability (a persistent, scalable threat)

The barrier to entry is falling while mission effectiveness is rising—making drone incidents more frequent and more complex.

Rohde & Schwarz: where precision meets protection

THORIS

THORIS

THORIS is a modular counter UAS architecture designed for a rapidly evolving drone threat environment. Built on an open, sensor and effector agnostic framework, it combines spectrum expertise with complementary sensing layers such as passive RF, radar and EO IR and fuses them into one coherent operational picture for detection, identification and coordinated threat evaluation. THORIS integrates with existing security networks and partner subsystems. For critical infrastructure operators, it supports early warning and governance aligned operations, including audit ready documentation to enable coordinated escalation to public authorities in line with CI frameworks.

Contact our CUAS experts for a tailored solution

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From spectrum to sight

Multi‑layer counter‑UAS awareness

In complex airspace and congested spectrum, single‑sensor detection is rarely sufficient. Effective counter‑UAS combines complementary sensing layers (typically RF, radar, and EO/IR) and fuses them into a single operational picture. This reduces blind spots, speeds up confirmation, and supports consistent decisions under pressure.

The same approach applies across sectors – but the operating context changes. Critical infrastructure focuses on continuity and safety: early warning, low nuisance alarms, and auditable escalation to avoid unnecessary disruption. Public security operates under strict permissions and public scrutiny, requiring fast localization, clear authority, and evidence‑ready workflows. Defense must withstand contested conditions and high tempo, including FPV and multi‑drone tactics – demanding track continuity, deconfliction with friendly UAS, and scalable response. What stays constant is the need for reliable awareness, clear escalation, and coordination across teams.

Where counter‑UAS matters most

Countering drones requires more than spotting an object in the sky. Effective counter-UAS follows a Detect – Decide – Respond approach, combining multisensor integration and unified command and control to enable governed workflows from detection to coordinated action. The same multi-layered approach applies across sectors, while priorities differ by operating context.

Law enforcement

Law enforcement

Counter‑drone capabilities help agencies detect, locate, and respond to drones used for illicit activity — supporting safe, lawful operations.

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Critical infrastructure

Critical infrastructure

Early detection and coordinated response reduce disruption risk and help protect services, assets, and public safety.

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Defense

Defense

Commercial drones, improvised UAS tactics, and rapidly evolving UAS technology drive demand for a scalable, layered counter‑UAS capability that supports base protection and deployed operations.

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CUAS with Rohde & Schwarz: your benefits

  • Continuous visibility RF and airspace: Persistent awareness for early risk recognition.
  • Measurement grade data: Time synchronized data for trusted evidence.
  • Highest precision direction finding: Accurate bearings for confident geolocation.
  • Pilot localization without decoding: Locate operators via RF emissions without decoding.
  • Rapid localization and response: Fast identification and targeted containment.
  • High accuracy parallel comms disruption full band: Full band jamming where legally permitted.
  • Reliable communications: Resilient communications during incidents.
  • Audit ready evidence: Verifiable records for compliance and assurance.
  • Governance aligned operations: Lawful decisions supported by workflows.
  • Turnkey operational delivery: End to end delivery and lifecycle support.
  • Sector tailored expertise: Domain expertise for real world performance.
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