Counter-drone technologyCounter-drone technologies demonstrated at DoD’s Black Dart event
Small, unmanned aircraft systems (UASs, aka UAVs, for unmanned aerial vehicle), or drones, are easy to obtain and launch and they are hard to detect on radar, making them of particular concern to law enforcement and the Department of Defense. Earlier this month DHS circulated an intelligence assessment to police agencies across the United States warning about drones being used as weapons in an attack. DOD says that Black Dart 2015, which began 26 July and ran through 7 August, is the Department of Defense’s largest live-fly, live-fire joint counter-UAS technology demonstration. One of the innovative developers of counter-UAS technologies is SRC Inc., a not-for-profit company formerly affiliated with Syracuse University. The company showed its SR Hawk surveillance radar, which is integral to its layered approach to defending against UASs.
Earlier this month DHS circulated an intelligence assessment to police agencies across the United States warning about drones being used as weapons in an attack. The bulletin warned state and municipal law enforcement agencies that terrorist and criminals may begin to use drones to advance their goals. “Emerging adversary use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems [UAS] present detection and disruption challenges,” the intelligence bulletin warns (“DHS warns local law enforcement to watch for drones used by terrorists, criminals,” HSNW, 3 August 20).
Small, unmanned aircraft systems (UASs, aka UAVs, for unmanned aerial vehicle), or drones, are easy to obtain and launch and they are hard to detect on radar, making them of particular concern to the Department of Defense, according to officials taking part in the Black Dart 2015 counter-UAS demonstration held at Point Mugu, California.
DOD says that Black Dart 2015, which began 26 July and ran through 7 August, is the Department of Defense’s largest live-fly, live-fire joint counter-UAS technology demonstration.
Navy Cmdr. David Zook, chief of the Capabilities Assessment Division with the Joint Integrated Air and Missile Defense Organization, or JIAMDO, briefing reporters at Naval Base Ventura County and Sea Range, said the demonstration brought together some 1,000 people, including industry personnel, observers from allied nations, and participants from four military branches.
Small drones can be launched from virtually anywhere and fly a significant radius, Zook said.
“Small manned and unmanned aircraft have always been hard to find,” he said. “It’s hard to tell the difference in the radar cross section from that and other small airborne vehicles or even birds.”
Black Dart 2015 provides “a unique and very valuable window for us to come together for two weeks here and practice in a littoral environment, a land-based environment and a deep-sea environment in many different scenarios,” Zook said.
Zook said the demonstration features cooperation and interoperability among military services in air and missile defense, while also assessing the anti-UAS capabilities of DoD, its agency partners and industry.
previous Black Dart demonstrations have resulted in new systems or improvements in technology, tactics, and procedures that have helped the warfighter, he said.
