DroneDefender: Batelle Develops Anti-Drone Rifle

While some homeowners have resorted to attempting to shoot unwanted drones out of the sky, law enforcement and security personnel have not had a good tool available to immediately remove an unwanted drone.  Batelle Innovations of Columbus, OH, the world’s largest non-profit research and development firm, has now announced an anti-drone rifle to meet their needs.

“…traditional defense mechanisms against UAS, such as shooting them down, are not tenable under current regulations and other solutions pose safety risks…the answer is Battelle’s DroneDefender™ system, which utilizes a non-kinetic solution to defend airspace up to 400m against UAS, such as quadcopters and hexacopters, without compromising safety or risking collateral damage,” the company states.

Batelle’s DroneDefender™ is a rifle that shoots radio pulses at a drone, disabling it at a distance of 400 meters.  The radio pulses disrupt the communication systems of the drone, confusing both the GPS capabilities and the remote operation systems.  At that point the drone’s manufacturer safety system will engage, causing the drone to either return to its operator or land.  The jamming of the drone’s communications system also ensures that any remote functions of the drone- such as detonation – cannot be engaged by the operator.  Battelle says the new rifle uses a combination of technologies including two antennae, jamming circuitry, and software-defined radio.

Weighing less than 10 pounds, the DroneDefender™ can be mounted to a fixed position or function as a portable, shoulder-mounted rifle.  With a cold start time of < .1 seconds, and a continuous operating time of about 5 hours, the new technology would seem to offer government agencies and law enforcement an instant weapon against drone threats.