[Scan-DC] Thales developing the means to 'neutralise' unauthorised UAVs

[Alan Henney]

Jane's Defence Weekly

June 17, 2015 Wednesday

Paris Air Show 2015: Thales developing the means to 'neutralise' unauthorised UAVs

BYLINE: Jennings, Gareth

SECTION: EUROPE Vol. 52 No. 31 ISSN: 0265-3818

LENGTH: 642 words

DATELINE: Paris 

ABSTRACT

Thales is developing counter-unmanned aerial vehicle (C-UAV) technology for the French government in the wake of a series of unauthorised flights over sensitive government sites over recent months, a senior company official said ahead of the Paris Air Show. 

FULL TEXT

Thales is developing counter-unmanned aerial vehicle (C-UAV) technology for the French government in the wake of a series of unauthorised flights over sensitive government sites over recent months, a senior company official said ahead of the Paris Air Show. 

Speaking to reporters at Thales' Gennevilliers facility in Paris, the spokesperson said the company has been contracted by the French government's ONERA aerospace laboratory to develop technology to prevent such flights under a project known as ANalyse Globale et Evaluation des technologies et méthodes pour la Lutte Anti-uaS (ANGELAS), which is French for Global Analysis and Evaluation of Technologies and Methods for Combatting UASs (unmanned aerial systems).

With its partners, Telecom SudParis, the CEA Leti, Exavision, EDF, and the Paris Institute of Criminology, Thales began in April an 18-month study into combating small civilian UASs for the Directorate General of the National Gendarmerie and the Paris Police Headquarters, the French armed forces, and the government. The project's goal is to detect, identify, classify, and neutralise rogue UAVs, said the spokesperson.

Thales will be responsible for the electromagnetic sensors, the surveillance and tracking infrastructure, and the neutralisation technology. It will also lead the test and evaluation, as well as the validation and exploitation of the solution.

To detect and locate an errant UAV, Thales is proposing a combination of its radar, acoustic detection, direction finders, radio and video locators, and laser scanner technologies. Neutralisation will be achieved by kinetic force (anti-aircraft artillery or sniper rifles) or through laser dazzling, selective jamming, GPS spoofing (hacking, to take control of the UAV), electro-magnetic pulses, or by interception using another UAV equipped with jamming equipment. As the spokesperson noted, there are legal aspects to neutralising UAVs that must first be worked through, chief of which is the impact of intercepted UAVs landing in urban areas.

The effort to counter UAVs was kickstarted in November 2014 when two unidentified quad-copters were seen overflying a French nuclear power plant. There have since been 59 unauthorised flights over critical infrastructure in France. Thales has already performed trials of its C-UAV technology against quadcopters and other small aircraft, with positive results reported.

Interestingly, Thales is also working on means to defeat C-UAV technology, although company officials declined to provide further details of these efforts.

COMMENT

C-UAV is one of the key capabilities being developed by both civilian and military authorities across the world.

In March 2014 the Israeli Air Force told IHS Jane's how it was developing its tactics to deal with the increased threat of UAVs entering the country's airspace.

Speaking at Ramon Airbase in southern Israel, Lockheed Martin F-16I 'Sufa' pilot Major O (security considerations prevented the disclosure of his full name) said the flight characteristics of these unmanned intruders has made intercepting them challenging and that their numbers were rising.

While Major O declined to give details on how F-16Is engage and destroy UAVs, he told IHS Jane's that it is made possible through revised tactics and the use of advanced targeting pods coupled with the Dash IV helmet-mounted display system and Python IV air-to-air missile.

Whatever tactics and technologies civilian and military authorities devise to defeat UAVs, their proliferating numbers clearly present a rising security issue.

Credit: Gareth Jennings Paris