How to protect against the Drone threat?

'Thales on the whole Drone ecosystem' series. Chapter 3 : Counter-UAV.
(Acces to all chapters at the end of the article)

Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) are now central to various commercial and military applications, with constant demand growing.

This has wider implications, notably the need for counter-UAS (CUAS) systems that can detect, identify and, if necessary, neutralise malicious drones

It brings a range of challenges, and engages Thales throughout its product set, notes Emmanuel Sprauel, VP of Strategy, Marketing and Product Policy for Thales' land and air defence systems business.

‘Counter-UAS is a system discipline, where you must align different types of capabilities to be able to assess the proper situation to protect against it, and potentially neutralise if it is a real threat,’ Sprauel explains.

‘This capability engages a broad portfolio of products, each of them at the edge of their capabilities because the ability to detect must be very powerful, the ability to identify must use algorithms and patterns. The ability to neutralise is difficult and must consider the safety rules and the proper rules of engaging a malicious threat.’

Of course, the approaches taken will differ from one case to the other. As an example when protecting civil infrastructure or airports ‘soft’ kill approaches in C-UAS will be used through methods such as jamming that will get the malicious drone to land. In contrast, hard kill approaches can be used, for instance in the neutralisation of drones in the battlefield

Thales works closely with the various players (governments, security/armed forces, civil institutions etc) to develop responses that matched to the broad array of challenges they are confronted with.

When it comes to the lower airspace, to secure civilians, events or infrastructure on the one hand, and military forces, sites and operations on the other, Thales integrates solutions that are able to respond to nano, micro, mini and small drone threats.

Many worldwide airports have been closed due to unauthorised drones coming into close range of the airport runway. Not only is there a safety issue, such incidents can cost millions. Early detection, identification, and classification brings vital seconds – in particular within the take-off area.

To face the proliferation of drones, authorities need to rely on an entire system that provides a comprehensive picture of the airspace in real time around the airport.

Thales’s solution called Eagleshield IDtect uses a multi-layered sensors approach and advanced C2 for the detection, monitoring and identification of drones, as well as being able to pinpoint the location of the drone pilot for airport authorities.

At the core of the system is Gamekeeper - a 3D holographic radar, designed to detect, track and classify small, slow, low UAVs from the smallest remote-piloted drones to more sophisticated autonomous drones, in particular within the glide path where the biggest risk exists.

Since its launch in 2019, EagleShield IDtect has been deployed at several airports across Europe, America and Asia.

Thales’ subsidiary Aveillant has pioneered the holographic radar, which provides a fully digital 3D picture of the skies.

This capability enables the radar to analyse a large volume of airspace constantly, says Aveillant CEO Dominic Walker. Unlike a traditional rotating radar, the system is constantly dwelling on all the objects out there.

‘Just as important is that dwelling on a target all of the time, rather than that one hit, you get a much richer target signature back: it can tell you a lot about exactly what that object is.’

Of course, CUAS for a modern airport or similar site cannot be solved by one radar, even something as unique as a holographic radar. Aveillant is working across Thales to build a complete system around the technology.

‘That could include some other sensors that detect the radio frequency emissions from a drone, it will typically also include high-definition cameras that the radar can direct, and then give an image of the drone,’ Walker says.

‘And it’s with all of this information fused together intelligently in one platform that an airport can make a decision on the safest course of action.’

Thales also integrates drone countermeasures systems to protect and secure sensitive sites and large-scale events in urban areas.

These are multi-sensors solutions that detect, identify, classify and neutralise rogue drones flying at low altitude. Thales provides a graduated, context-sensitive response to the threat of unmanned systems flying in civil airspace.

Let’s take the example of PARADE, the counter-drone system developed for the French DGA by Thales and CS Group.
PARADE aims to strengthen the drone countermeasures capabilities of the French armed forces and to protect large-scale events and critical infrastructure.

... detection can be a particular challenge.

'While many of us are familiar with the large UAS used in recent conflicts, most drones are small, so they are difficult to detect' notes Erik van Kimmenaede, Marketing Director for Surface Radar at Thales.

Increasingly, the use of highly manoeuvrable UAVs, capable of flying at slow speed and low altitudes, is challenging the protection of land forces deployed closer to the frontline in theatres of operations. Their size, speed and agility, but also the possibility to deploy these systems in high quantities, is now adding to the saturation of the frontline airspace, bringing uncertainty and additional stress.

To achieve the mission and effectively protect air sovereignty, surface radars need to demonstrate high standards of survivability and resilience. These radars must also see what others do not, offering detection superiority.

'Such systems evolve through constant collaboration with the customer' says Arndt Ulbrich, Product Line Manager for ground and coastal surveillance radar at Thales.

For example, Ulbrich explains that customer feedback has resulted in changes to how information is presented on screens, or to the human-machine interface.

GO-20MM is optimised to detect the types of targets militaries face on today’s battlefields, notably the micro-drones or even nano-drones found in increasing numbers.

‘You need to be close to the area of interest,’ he says.

‘High mobility, autonomy, so no need for a dedicated infrastructure or large power network – that’s one of the key assets of GO20 MM, being small, compact, easy to transport, easy to install, and you don’t need a large crew.’

Systems like ForceShield, an integrated Ground Based Air Defense (GBAD) solution, can offer a response against drones, notes Jean-Philippe Hardange, director of strategy for Thales' airspace protection business.

ForceShield comprises the Ground Master 200 (GM200) medium-range radar for detection, he says, designed to establish a wide-scale air picture to include drones, aircraft, and even rockets and mortar shells.

Detection of threats including drones is then displayed in a C2 system Control View that acts as the surveillance and engagement module and allows operators to plan their mission and prepare for deployment.

The system then has an identification function, allowing for the classification of threats and enables the neutralisation of these threats through missiles such as the Lightweight Multi-role Missile (LMM) with different types of launchers to engage malicious drones or other threats, such as the RapidRanger lightweight multi-missile launcher or the SL/LML Shoulder Launch/Lightweight Multiple Launcher.

‘The system is generally very simple in principle, but there are a lot of rules and constraints to apply for security, safety, efficiency that makes it more complex than it appears,’ Hardange says.

The need to adapt, as quickly as threats.

Ulbrich says there are several areas of likely development in the coming years. For example, he points to “clarification”, the ability of an operator at a screen to be quickly informed about the nature of the target that has been detected.

‘Drones are evolving, with new directions and capabilities, so we have to adapt to the new types that are appearing – we have to train and improve our algorithms to make it easier for the operator to decide what he wants to do.’

He adds that the company is also looking at intelligent radar, which could support operators more quickly in identifying a target.

Such advances would ultimately reduce the burden on the operator and boost their advantage in the CUAS challenge.