MOD ponders raptor tactics to counter threat of drones
ATTACK drones that mimic the tactics of birds of prey are to be funded by the Government as a way of preventing future airport shutdowns.
The Ministry of Defence announced it has awarded nearly £2 million to 18 private-sector projects, including one for rapid capture drones that copy peregrine falcon hunting skills to take down “hostile and malicious” drones.
The grants come after multiple sightings of a drone led to Gatwick Airport being shut down for three days just before Christmas last year.
One of the projects receiving MOD funding is by Oxford-based company Animal Dynamics, which is developing swarms of light drones that will be able to intercept and capture hostile craft.
The company has studied the hunting behaviour of peregrine falcons, which scan for prey such as pigeons while hovering at altitude, then dive at up to 200mph to intercept them in mid-air.
Alex Caccia, the company’s CEO, told The Daily Telegraph it aimed to try to copy the natural “algorithm” that the falcons have to hone-in on targets.
He said: “The approach we are taking comes from a very long-standing set of studies done by my co-founder Adrian Thomas, biomechanics professor [at Oxford University], looking at the way birds of prey optimise their attack strategies.
“Evolution has produced some very elegant and effective ways of controlling that process and that is what we are basing our control system on.”
Each of the companies awarded MOD grants, which have come through its Defence and Security Accelerator programme (DASA), received almost £100,000 to prove their concepts.
Other companies to be awarded grants were the defence behemoth BAE Systems, to develop electromagnetic fields that can down drones, and University College London, which aims to create computer programmes that can identify drones in a flock of birds.
David Lugton, DASA competition technical lead, said: “The threat from Unmanned Air Systems [UAS] has evolved rapidly and we are seeing the use of hostile improvised UAS threats in overseas theatres of operation.”