Dronegun, the Tactical Drone Jammer
By the year 2020 there are 12 million UAVs and drones expected to be around. Most will be used for fun, but needless to say, some of these will be used for potentially illegal activities and surveillance and possibly terrorism.
As a reply, Droneshield from Australia have developed the Dronegun as a safe countermeasure against a wide range of drone models.
Firstly, to detect drones, Droneshield have a number of sensors that can detect drones from 200 up to 1000 meters.
Below: Dronegun with the DroneShield Long Range sensor to the right.
Secondly, where legally possible, the DroneGun Jammer can be deployed.
(In some jurisdictions interfering with a drone in a civilian environment is not legal in a number of countries, as they are considered private.)
According to the manufacturer, the Jammer works up to 2000 meters. When a drone is jammed, it is often programmed to do either a safe landing (vertical controlled) or return to the starting point. The later will help in finding the operator, and the safe landing will help if there’s any explosive payload on the drone. The drone also remains intact and available for forensic investigation.
I guess the drone goes into some kind of “safe mode”, when it loses the signal from the owner/controller.
The Drone gun is shaped as a rifle and comes with a backpack. Only one person is needed to operate the “rifle”.
Specifications
Jammer Specifications: Voltage: 16.8+/-0.1V
Runtime: 2hr
Charging time: 90min
Max distance: Up to 2km
Jammer frequencies: 2.38Ghz-2.483Ghz. 5.725Ghz-5.825Ghz
GPS (optional) GLONASS (optional)
Battery Specifications: Lithium-Ion, V-Mount Batteries, 14.8V, 90wh, 0.9kg
Dimensions: Sensor body: 85cm x 18cm x 27cm
Body Weight: 5.7 kg
The design seems to be a Quad-rail Picatinny with antennas / jammers all around, with a red dot on top. Magpul butt-stock I think. Essentially an empty AR-15 filled with electronics.
Looks like a Leupold Deltapoint. I think there are more efficient raisers available, but perhaps not readily available in Australia?
Spacegun looks, but most likely more efficient (and stealthier) than a shotgun with buckshots in most cases.
The Dronegun is demonstrated in this video.
Ex-Arctic Ranger. Competitive practical shooter and hunter with a European focus. Always ready to increase my collection of modern semi-automatics, optics, thermals and suppressors. TCCC Certified. Occasionaly seen in a 6x6 Bug Out Vehicle, always with a big smile.
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jokes aside, I have two ideas about this:
1) Drones WILL become more and more so a security concern for an ever wider variety of entities/persons. This thing will just keep on snowballing.
2) "taking down" drones will only be easy only as far as unmodified consumer-market drones are concerned. Drones can be, with very modest modifications, become fully automated and "disconnected" from the user and thus ignore any conventional jamming. Furthermore the use of control/telemetry frequencies can be greately expanded making jamming a very difficult task. Beyond that still is full EM/ECM/jamming protection. Drones can operate independently of any remote control, either on autopilot or by terrain recognition, etc.
So whatever small jamming antennas, "hawks", whatever else, including use of firearms, drones can be designed to have a pretty fair survival rate in almost all scenarios.
So how exactly a 99,9% "drone safe airspace", let's say above VIPs and what not, can be maintained without the costs of doing so being astronomical is yet to be demonstrated.