PARIS – What’s the best way to counter an unwelcome drone: a bigger, faster drone, laser guns, sky-high netting or devices that block remote controls?
Scientists, governments and companies now are scrambling to find out.
Concerned about a recent spate of mystery drones flying over its nuclear plants, military installations and even the presidential palace, France has asked scientists to help devise ways to counteract the small – and so far harmless – motorized menaces overhead.
World powers such as China and the United States are also gearing up against the potential threat.
Civilian drones have become a 21st-century hobby and a hot seller for many, from high-tech aficionados to curious kids. But their increasing presence in the skies gives headaches to national security chiefs:
On Tuesday, a French national security and defense agency under the prime minister closed the books on a call for bids to fund a drone interception system. It hopes to have at least some drone defenses operational in the next 18 months.
“We have made a proposal to the scientific community to see what best emerges,” said Karine Delmouly, a project manager at the National Research Agency, or ANR, which is vetting the proposals. She declined to discuss specifics or say how many companies made bids.
France wants to monitor and detect intruding drones and their remote-control pilots; analyze and track their flight paths; and ultimately neutralize the drones – either temporarily or permanently – with the least collateral damage possible, the ANR said in its call for bids.
As for the options, the sky may be the limit. Anti-drone devices could include pinpoint radar systems to track drones the size of a breadbasket or even smaller (and distinguish them from birds), high-tech lasers to destroy the unwanted intruders or telecommunications-scrambling systems to block the remote controls that direct them.
Interception drones could be sent up into the sky to fight back and low-tech solutions such as sky-high netting or fences could also work, officials say.
Some countries are already working to counter unwanted drones. State media in China say Chinese scientists have developed a laser weapon that can detect and shoot down small, low-flying and slow-moving aircraft inside a 2-kilometer (1.2-mile) radius.
Private-sector companies are also tackling the problem. China’s DJI Technology Co. said Wednesday it will send a software update this week for its drones’ navigation system that will block them from flying over Washington, accelerating the release after the White House incident involving its 50-centimeter-long (two-foot-long) Phantom quad copter. Company spokesman Michael Perry said the DJI drones use a GPS-linked navigation system that already blocks them from “no-fly” zones around 700 airports worldwide.
Raphael Satter in London and Joe McDonald in Beijing contributed to this report.
