Latvia’s Looking for a Few Good Drone Hunters

Latvia State Police may soon release the hounds – or at least the nets – on errant drones in its national airspace.

According to the Baltic Course, the Latvia Interior Ministry is in talks with home-grown UAV manufacturer Drone Technology to develop an anti-drone system using either net-wielding drones or net-shooting rifles.

The nation’s Defense, Internal Affairs and Corruption Prevention Committee discussed anti-drone ideas this past week in a closed session.

Several nations are considering tougher drone protection measures after following several reports of collisions or near collisions of drones with airliners – despite the fact that many such reports may be mistaken.

According to recent media reports, 23 drone/aircraft near misses were recorded by the UK Airprox Board last year between April and October with 12 incidents rated as a “serious risk of collision.”

Drone-snaring net systems are one of many new innovations in the anti-UAV industry. Tokyo police have already deployed a “drone squad,” during this year’s Tokyo Marathon. The squad operates anti-drone UAVs with specially designed nets to catch rogue drones flying in restricted airspace. The concept is similar to a “robotic falcon” drone catcher tested in January by Michigan Technological University

Latvian officials signaled the possibility of buying a net-based rocket launcher from OpenWorks Engineering, a British engineering firm that recently unveiled SkyWall.

The device resembles a missile launcher and can deploy an intelligent projectile with on-board countermeasures up to 100 meters. After the launcher’s targeting AI calculates a drone’s trajectory, the launched projectile hunts down the errant drone, apprehending it with an on-board net/parachute apparatus.

Manufacturers are touting a variety of alternative drone hunting solutions – from the “anti-drone rifle by Batelle Innovations to the Anti–AUV Defense System – dubbed the “anti-drone death ray”

Fueled by near-hysterical media reports about alleged out-of-control drones, anti-drone development is fast becoming a billion-dollar business.

This past week, SkySafe, a California-based startup, attracted $3 million in seed funding from angel investors Andreessen Horowitz, Founder Collective, SV Angel and BoxGroup. The firm has developed a radio-wave transmission device that can allegedly cut the signal between a drone and its remote, allowing a SkySafe user to bring it down.