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Why Detecting Drones Is a Tough Gig
An anonymous reader writes with a link to some interesting commentary at Help Net Security from Drone Lab CEO Zain Naboulsi about a security issue of a (so far) unusual kind: detecting drones whose masters are bent on malice. That's relevant after the recent drone flight close enough to the White House to spook the Secret Service, and that wasn't the first -- even if no malice was involved. Drones at their most dangerous in that context are small, quiet, and flying through busy, populated spaces, which makes even detecting them tough, never mind defeating them. From the article, which briefly describes pros and cons of various detection methods: Audio detection does NOT work in urban environments - period. Most microphones only listen well at 25 to 50 feet so, because of the ambient noise in the area, any audio detection method would be rendered useless at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It is also too simple for an operator to change the sound signature of a drone by buying different propellers or making other modifications. It doesn't take much to defeat the many weaknesses of audio detection.
What about an autonomous drone which is just flying to certain GPS coordinates and then detonating? Or even just using inertial guidance and image processing?
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Actually a CRAM system which is the land version of the naval Phalanx system has stopped thousands of mortars. Mortars are actually be easier to stop then a light drone because of their very distinctive speed, angle, and mass
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
You all act like it's not possible to tell where a specific signal comes from.... All you need is a couple of direction finders tied together and you can develop a pretty good location for *THAT* WiFi signal and decide if it is new, if it's within a specified area and do all this very quickly. So I might not be able to determine exactly what the traffic means, but I can pretty quickly decide if it's a possible threat coming from the clearing over there and not something I've monitored for weeks on end in the office building across the street. How hard is this? If I can image it, I'm sure some smart guys have implemented this already...
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
(1) Send out a large electromagnetic pulse
Tomorrows headline: "Secret Service drone jammer interferes with pace makers - Half of congress deceased" :)
What possible downsides could an EMP have...
No need for guns; just station a half-dozen guard birds on the roof.
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
It's actually a very hard problem - because you have to detect who is receiving the signal, not who is sending it. The sender can be far enough away to bleed into the background radio noise.
The more expensive drones can receive GPS signals and follow a preprogrammed course.
Either way, it may sound easy on the surface, but it's not.