Anti-drone gun can jam rogue aircrafts

U.S. government agencies looking to ground drones can now put the flying devices in their cross hairs.

A company called DroneShield has introduced a 13-poundjammer that it says can take down drones from a distance as far as 1.2 miles away.

The DroneGun isn’t meant for drone hobbyists or their vengeful neighbors. The company says it could thwart drones carrying explosives intended to carry out a civilian or military attack, or stop those that venture illegally into restricted airspace or onto prohibited property.

The gun’s effect is not exactly obvious. There’s no projectile fired or resulting explosion that would make for great action-movie footage. Instead, the DroneGun jams the radio and/or GPS frequency that tells the drone where to go.

Drones have proven to be a pesky, and at times a safety hazard, for agencies that operate tightly controlled environments.

Airports have grappled with them venturing too close to runways, prisons have intercepted them delivering contraband to inmates, and the White House has had them crash-land on its grounds.

“We certainly feel that a jammer is a safer way to bring down a drone than shooting it,” said Oleg Vornik, DroneShield’s chief financial officer.

Because commercial drones operate on publicly accessible radio frequencies, the DroneGun could be used to jam other consumer-grade electronics, such as web routers or remote-controlled toy cars.

Federal Communications Commission regulations dictate that the gun can be sold only to federal agencies, according to the company’s website.

“In terms of how this is sold, there is clearly a very controlled process,” Vornik said. “In most developed countries around the world, there is a very narrow bandwidth of customers we can sell to.”

That helps keep the jammer out of the hands of those who might use it against law enforcement, he said.