Watch out – drones about! Cutting through the buzz to secure airspaces

How to protect critical infrastructure to combat growing drone-based threats

Andy Bird, Managing Director, GTT Wireless

Airspace security is booming, and a significant driving force is the rise in consumer-level drones that are now more affordable, easy to procure, simple to operate and set to grow in volume. Latest figures show the global counter-drone market will grow at a CAGR of 37.2% from 2018-2023. The countries driving market growth are dispersed across North America and Europe, but also increasingly South America and the Asia-Pacific. Drone interference is becoming an international issue.

Close shaves and food for thought
There have been many high-profile instances of security-compromising drone activity over recent years. After several early instances of unauthorised drone flights across Paris, its entire metropolitan area has been declared a ‘No Fly Zone’, and any contravention is punishable by imprisonment and/or a €75,000 fine.

Elsewhere Heathrow and Gatwick airports in London have seen significant disruption to flight schedules due to illegal drone flights around their runways. Flights at Gatwick were suspended for 30 hours in July 2019, with 140,000 passengers disrupted during peak holiday season. In the same holiday season climate change campaigners threatened to use drones as part of a protest to shut down Heathrow, leading police to threaten life sentences to anyone caught.

In an even more sinister application, drones have been used as part of terror activities in a number of ways. One recent example took place in Caracas, Venezuela, when two drones were used to detonate explosives in an alleged assassination attempt on President of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro in August 2018.

Fighting back
To address this growing security concern, anti-drone systems rely on a variety of techniques and technologies for detecting, tracking and/or intercepting drones. The systems can be ground-based, hand-held or UAV-based. Each platform has technological capabilities to either track and detect, or even intercept, a drone.

One of the leaders driving this fightback is GTT Wireless partner CerbAir. CerbAir was founded in France in 2015 to counter the alarming increase of drone intrusions on national territory. Since then the company has grown rapidly to offer anti-drone solutions that adapt to the unique requirements of military, civil service and private customers.

CerbAir groups drone threats into four main areas:

Attack – using drones to cause damage from a distance and at low price

Collision – when flown into restricted airspace drones can strike aircraft or people

Contraband – drones being used to smuggle goods into secure facilities

Spying – drones carrying surveillance equipment for cyber-related espionage

Taking control of airspace security
CerbAir has an expert team dedicated to drone detection and neutralisation and uses a three-step approach to combat drone-related disturbances. Firstly, radiofrequency technology detects communication between a drone and remote control – the advantage of using RF communications means no interference to surrounding networks. Second, proprietary algorithms locate the drone at a range of 1-2km and can pinpoint a remote control within 10° of accuracy. Finally, a drone can then be neutralised with electronic countermeasures (in accordance with local regulations) or trigger relevant security protocols to deal with the threat.

The company’s proprietary radiofrequency technology offers excellent precision and performance. As the physical or electronic interception of a drone can be complex, radiofrequency is the only detection technology that allows users to locate the pilot and neutralise the threat at its source.

CerbAir detection sensors are deployed across five continents, in environments ranging from the marine to deserts, the tropics and the Arctic Circle. But without adequate protection this detection hardware can be rendered useless. In such harsh environments, there are a number of potential points of failure due to extreme conditions such as temperature, wind, salt spray, dust and more.

GTT Wireless protects components to guarantee always-on security
To house these critical components, the company needed an enclosure that is military-grade and shock-proof. They selected a GTT Wireless enclosure made from die cast aluminium alloy – with SurTec® 650 coating to ensure excellence in delivering protection against corrosion thanks to its resistance to water, heat and contamination.

“Housing our mobile and stationary sensing infrastructure in the right enclosure was a critical part of our hardware offering,” said Lucas Le Bell, CEO of CerbAir. “When assessing the market, our team made a swift decision to trial a GTT Wireless enclosure and it performed well when subjected to rigorous testing.”

“After a successful consultation with the expert team at GTT Wireless, CerbAir felt confident we had a secure, reliable and resilient enclosure. We were able to configure the enclosure to meet our exact requirements and its Plug and Play design meant it was easy to integrate our hardware and install these enclosures in some very hostile environments.”

Protection now and into the future
With the right tools in place CerbAir offers its customers a best-in-class counter drone solution, safe in the knowledge that its critical detection infrastructure is protected against both natural and man-made threats. With the U.S. Federal Aviation Authority predicting that there will be seven million drones sold in the U.S. alone by 2020, CerbAir and GTT Wireless will continue to support this market to protect the military and public from an ever-growing threat.

Find out more about the GTT Wireless enclosures and configure your own for counter-drone systems. You can learn more about the CerbAir product range here.