How counter-drone technology is changing the face of defence

Drones are changing modern warfare, and traditional defence systems can’t keep up. New technology is needed to counter this threat.

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“Drones have changed modern battle because they can sense further forward and deliver effect further forward,” explains Louise Heywood, Head of Strategy, BAE Systems Digital Intelligence.

Intelligent analytics and real-time decision-making

Countering uncrewed threats with kinetic effect can be costly, so denying or degrading communications links is a common alternative. “If a drone has a radio frequency-led (RF) comms link, there are different ways of jamming, spoofing, denying and ‘returning to operator’ through cyber protocol takeover,” says Heywood.

“However, we’re seeing the threats constantly change, and this makes it hard to keep up. For example, jamming offers no defence against the latest fibre optic drones which are tethered to the ground and don’t rely on wireless signals,” she adds.

To protect troops, urban centres and critical infrastructure, quick threat identification is critical. That’s why BAE Systems Digital Intelligence is developing the BAE Systems Anti-Threat System (BATS), which uses intelligent analytics and real-time decision-making to help operators detect, classify and track different types of drones.

BATS uses a multi-sensor approach, which is important because “in a battlefield or force protection environment, you might not always want to use active sensing in case it gives away your own sensing modalities’ location.”

If a drone is identified as hostile, the operator can mobilise a counter-response. “They have the choice to deploy a ‘soft kill’ effect to deny or degrade the drone’s communications links,” says Heywood. “Or they could deploy a ‘hard kill’ effect via a ground-based weapon system if legislation and engagement rules allow.”

“In a battlefield or force protection environment, you might not always want to use active sensing in case it gives away your own sensing modalities’ location.”

Agile work led to swift innovation

“We had to create quickly because the drone threat is evolving quickly,” says Heywood. “That meant operating in an agile way, but we’re at a point where it’s ready to be trialled this summer.”

For Heywood and her team, developing BATS has been challenging, but ultimately rewarding.

“We hand-picked a team of incredibly passionate, able people,” she says. “It’s been important to them from a technical perspective, but also because of world events.”