The Pentagon’s futuristic think tank is thinking about how to stop errant drones and it wants the public’s help.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Tactical Technology Office this week announced a request for information to help create “novel, flexible, mobile layered” anti-drone solutions to defend “fixed and mobile ground and naval forces from possible drone threats.”
The agency stated that they were seeking any “ideas, methodologies, and approaches” for new drone protection systems – dubbed “mobile force protection.”
DARPA says that, at this stage, submissions to the request are for information and planning purposes only. Inventors who submit the best ideas will be invited to a workshop at DARPA headquarters in Arlington, Va.
“Commercial interest and a large and active open source community enable very rapid improvement of sUAS capabilities in general, which adversaries could potentially use against U.S. warfighters,” the document states.
The agency believes that rogue drones will require innovative concepts to detect, track and kill errant UAVs. Any new anti-drone solution, the agency says must work “on a compressed timeline, and while mitigating collateral damage and providing flexibility to operations in multiple mission environments.” In other words – DARPA is pretty darn serious.
Over the past two years, the U.S. military has quietly declared a virtual war on irresponsible drone users – the type who invade airport space or fly too close to wildfires (or even the White House).
In May, U.S. Army Cyber Warfare Officer Brent Chapman released plans for an open-source, anti-drone “gun” to the Maker community. The DIY device uses a Raspberry Pi mini-computer, a Wi-Fi card, open source software and a tin can, to neutralize Wi-Fi-guided drones.
During a demonstration at West Point in March, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter downed a drone with the army’s newest innovation – an inexpensive drone killer that can be built for about $150 in parts (also created by Chapman and other officers).
DARPA’s request is yet another sign that the anti-drone industry will continue to keep pace3 with the UAV industry’s rocketing success.
A recent study predicts the emerging market will to grow to a billion-dollar industry within six years with predicted compound annual growth rate of 23.89 percent across 2017-22.
Earlier this year, the FAA joined forces with “government, industry and academia partners” to test drone detection tech at JFK airport and experts say the agency will likely invest more funds into similar projects going forward.
Jason is a longstanding contributor to DroneLife with an avid interest in all things tech. He focuses on anti-drone technologies and the public safety sector; police, fire, and search and rescue.
Beginning his career as a journalist in 1996, Jason has since written and edited thousands of engaging news articles, blog posts, press releases and online content.
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Rogue Drones could be a problem. Just ask me. I have dealt with this problem for almost 30 months now. These custom home built / aircraft plant built Drones are the main tools used to Stalk -Harass and torture my family ,myself and my farm animals. All i had to do was start paying close attention to what was going on and i realized it was all coming from my 56 year old neighbor. I have no privacy or do any of my friends have any privacy. I have been taking pictures and videos for the past two years and still i can get no help to try and stop this torture harassment that i am living with. If any one was to know the true feeling of being harassed just ask me it has almost ruined my whole life. i live south of the Air Craft Capital of the united states in a small town called Mulvane. You could not believe the things i have seen and have pictures of now. We the general public need to work fast before it is to late. I would rather take a beating than to see what has happened to my family and my poor animals. God Bless D Barnes.