By In Homeland Security Staff
As the friendly skies become less friendly with commercial, general and military aviation crowding our vertical real estate market in the sky—an alarming number of drone near misses with aircraft point to the inevitability of a collision—especially during low-level departures and landings around major airports.
The vulnerability of an aircraft crashing during takeoffs and landings constitutes approximately 45% of all accidents. The proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which are predominately used within line-of-sight of the operator, place the majority of potential collisions near to the ground. And while the FAA maintains reduced vertical separation minimums of 1,000 feet between aircraft above standard flight level (FL290), the congested skies around airports and major cities appear to be at a greater risk of collision.
In fact, 23 too-close-for-comfort encounters were reported in the United Kingdom last year, including a near miss of only 82 feet between a drone and a Boeing 777 near London’s Heathrow Airport. To put that into context, a flock of seagulls entering into a jet engine is enough to sometimes bring down a plane; imagine a heavy metal drone entering a jet engine. It’s not a matter of if that will happen—it’s a matter of when that will happen. Add to the mix terrorists or criminals intent on targeting U.S. airports using hobbyist drones and a counter-drone industry is burgeoning.
Additionally, private drones are quite simply becoming more and more intrusive. In recent years, drones have infiltrated private film sets, delivered contraband to prison inmates, and even spied on celebrities as they sipped cocktails in their homes.
The Shoulder-Mounted Drone Catcher Arrives
The rise in drone use to invade private and government facilities is the impetus for new anti-drone systems. Enter the SkyWall100 Drone Defense System—described by its U.K. manufacturer as “a man-portable and cost-effective counter drone system.”
VIDEO: See SkyWall100 in action
In basic terms, the operator of the SkyWall100 acquires the flying object using a sophisticated digital targeting mechanism and then uses a large shoulder-mounted gas-powered gun to fire a projectile toward the pesky drone.
What happens next looks like something that both Spider-Man and Batman would be proud of. A net deploys from the projectile—capturing the drone—and then a parachute guides both the net and its prey safely back to the ground. And that’s the best part, because if the drone or its operator were up to no good, the information (video or otherwise) can now be accessed and analyzed.
On the battlefield, obliterating the drone would also destroy any forensic evidence, so the military and intelligence implications of systems like SkyWall100 are obvious. Capturing a hostile drone safely with a net and a parachute could be as priceless as capturing a human enemy combatant.
This system will likely spur a new drone-catching industry as the problem of intrusive drones—used both for good and evil—is here to stay.