Why drone Point Defence Solutions are “pointless” for Strategic Asset Protection
The Indian Air Force (IAF) base in Jammu was rocked by two IED blasts in the early hours of 27 June 2021, when two drones dropped high grade-explosives that damaged the roof of a building and injured two IAF personnel. This is being dubbed as the first drone-based terror attack ever launched on India and signals towards an ominous future, where Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), autonomous weapons systems would be employed as new modes of attack strategy.
The discussions about such terror attacks began in 2018 when Syrian rebels used homemade drones to attack Russian military bases in Syria and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro narrowly escaped an assassination attempt by a GPS-guided drone attack the same year. And it further gained momentum in 2019 when Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for bombing two key Saudi oil installations. There was also a video, on the internet, from Libya of a Turkish drone destroying a Russian Pantsir missile defence system. Next came the veteran S-300 air defence system — also Russian — being taken out in Nagorno-Karabakh by an Israeli-built Harop loitering munition.
Today, the Smart Drone defence system has gained tactical importance for its ability to protect strategic assets in asymmetric warfare. Companies across the globe have developed solutions to address the meandering threat. Experts say that the balance of power between drones and air defence systems is shaping up to be a key to global wars in the near future. Libya, Nagorno-Karabakh, and also Syria have just shown us that if a fielded force cannot protect its airspace, then the large-scale use of UAVs can make life extremely dangerous. Smart drones are classified into Autonomous UAVs, Low RCS Missiles, Smart munitions, and Swarm Drones.
However, behind the cacophony of high-decibel pitch claims by drone defence manufacturers, one needs to understand how drone defence works. Let’s break this down.
First off, we’re splitting all the Drone defence tech into two categories: Monitoring Equipment and Countermeasures.
Drone monitoring equipment can be passive (simply looking or listening) or active (sending a signal out and analysing what comes back) and can perform several functions, including:
· Detection - (might detect birds too)
· Classification or Identification – (Separates the drones from the birds and also helps in classification of drone category for effective counter measure)
· Locating and Tracking (to know the drone’s exact location) · Alerting
You should be aware that not all equipment performs all of the above functionalities at the same time.
There are four main types of drone monitoring equipment:
Radio Frequency (RF) Analysers
RF Analysers consist of one or more antennas to receive radio waves and a processor to analyse the RF spectrum. They’re used to try to detect radio communication between a drone and its controller. Some high-end systems can also triangulate the drone and its controller when using multiple radio units spread far apart.
Pros: Can be low cost, detects (and sometimes identifies) multiple drones and controllers, passive so, no license required. Some can triangulate drone and controller positions.
Cons: Doesn’t always locate and track drones, can’t detect autonomous drones, less effective in crowded RF areas, typically short-range.
Acoustic Sensors (Microphones)
Usually, a microphone, or microphone array (lots of microphones), which detects the sound made by a drone and calculates a direction. More sets of microphone arrays can be used for rough triangulation. Pros: Detects all drones within the near-field, including those operating autonomously (without (RF-emissions). Detects drones against ground clutter where other technologies can struggle. Great gap-filler in areas outside line-of-sight of other sensors. Highly mobile and quickly deployable. Completely passive.
Cons: Doesn’t work as well in a noisy environment. Very short range (max. 300-500m)
Optical Sensors (Cameras)
Essentially a video camera. As well as standard daylight cameras, optical sensors can be infrared or thermal imaging.
Pros: Provides visuals on the drone and its (potential) payload, can record images as forensic evidence for use in eventual prosecution. Cons: Difficult to use for detection by itself, high false-alarm rates, mostly poor performance in dark, fog, etc.
Radar
A device using radio energy to detect an object. Drone detection radar sends out a signal and receives the reflection, measuring direction and distance (position). Most radars send their radio signal
as a burst, then listen for the ‘echo’. However, almost all radars are designed to NOT pick up small targets. They are designed for large object tracking, like passenger aircraft.
Pros: Long range, constant tracking, highly accurate localisation, can handle hundreds of targets simultaneously, can track all drones regardless of autonomous flight, independent of visual conditions (day, night, fog, etc.)
Cons: Detection range dependant on drone size - most do not distinguish birds from drones - requires transmission license and frequency check to prevent interference.
Countermeasures
Countermeasures can be grouped as either Physically destroying the drone; Neutralising/Repulsing the attack or Taking control of the drone.
RF Jammers
An RF Jammer is a static, mobile, or handheld device that transmits a large amount of RF energy towards the drone, masking the controller signal. This results in one of four scenarios, depending on the drone: Pros: Medium cost, non-kinetic neutralisation.
Cons: Short-range, can affect (and jam) other radio communications, can result in unpredictable drone behaviour, could unintentionally send the drone to its target.
GPS Spoofer
This device sends a new signal to the drone, replacing the communication with GPS satellites it uses for navigation. In this way, the drone is ‘spoofed’ into thinking it’s somewhere else. By dynamically altering the GPS coordinates in real-time, the drone’s position can be controlled by the spoofer. Once control is gained the drone can be directed to a ‘safe zone’.
Pros: Medium cost, non-kinetic neutralisation.
Cons: Short range can affect (and jam) other radio communications.
High Power Microwave (HPM) Devices
High Power Microwave (HPM) devices generate an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) capable of disrupting electronic devices. The EMP interferes with radio links and disrupts or even destroys the electronic circuitry in drones (plus any other electronic device within range) due to the damaging voltage and currents it creates. HPM devices may include an antenna to focus the EMP in a certain direction, reducing potential collateral damage.
Pros: Within the range, the drone can be stopped effectively, non-kinetic.
Cons: High cost, risk of unintentionally disrupting communications or destroying other electronic devices in the area, drone effectively switches off instantly falling uncontrolled to the ground.
Nets & Net Guns
Firing a net at a drone, or otherwise bringing a net into contact with a drone stops the drone by prohibiting the rotor blades.
Pros: Physically captures drone – good for forensics and prosecution, ground-launched net cannons are semi-automatic with high accuracy, a drone deployed nets have a long-range, low risk of collateral damage. Cons: Kinetic solution could result in debris depending on parachute options, drone deployed nets imprecise and long reload time, ground-launched nets have a short range.
High-Energy Lasers
A high-powered optical device that produces an extremely focused beam of light, or laser beam. The laser defeats the drone by destroying the structure and/or the electronics. Pros: Physically stops the drone.
Cons: High cost, risk of collateral damage, large system, mostly experimental technology.
The inherent shortcoming of Point Defence System
If you haven’t noticed the common thread yet, to neutralise a UAV threat there must be a physical sighting!
Point defence Anti-UAV systems, currently being contemplated, are deployed at high-value assets. They wait for the target to approach their defended bubble which is a few sq km at best and unsuitable to counter and protect large defence bases and linear infrastructure like international borders. These areas are sensitive areas and subjected to a variety of threats limited to UAVs. Other Low RCS threats include Loiter Munitions, Stand Off weapons, Smart Munitions, and Swarm Drones. Also, the fact that current systems rely on physical sighting for engagement is a huge limitation. As a computation, a minimum of 300 systems is required to be deployed to protect the entire 4000 plus mile border stretch that India shares with Pakistan and China, which is financially not a viable option.
Furthermore, the biggest shortcoming of any of the available off the shelf drone defence tech is that they are at best C2 systems, which means that data that is collected in the field by humans, sensors, or some other means, is then sent back to Command and Control (C2) for analysis and presented to decision-makers. The human intervention in the kill chain process can prove fatal as seen in the Budgam Mi-17 crash.
Autonomous Defence is the future
Autonomy will fundamentally change the dynamics of warfare. Smaller, faster computers, and the ability to split sensing and processing between different nodes, open all kinds of novel possibilities for weapons and warfare.
It needs to be clearly understood that the threat is not from off-the-shelf toys but from extremely well-developed autonomous military-grade technologies. The need, therefore, is for a far more comprehensive approach in this space, which is essentially a subspace of air defence. A suite of multi-spectral illumination, widearea distributed surveillance network light data transfer, even and distributed engagement capability, autonomous Non-Rule-based engagement modules powered by Artificial Intelligence would be necessary to protect linear infrastructure and large-sized strategic assets. An immediate move in this direction will be the only option for defences to stay on par with the hugely autonomous weapons, platforms, and UAVs including SWARM threats.
Autonomous Defence/ Weapon Systems are touted as the 3rd revolution in warfare, where a combination of technologies powered by Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity, and Robotics are capable of identifying, assessing, deciding, acting, and evolving autonomously in real-time. Whether the threat is single or multiple or a combination of UAVs, Low-RCS, Loitering Munitions, and such, is capable of countering all such threats.