AUDS Team to make FIA debut
The counter-UAV Anti-UAV Defence System (AUDS) team - consisting of Blighter Surveillance Systems, Chess Dynamics, Enterprise Control Systems and Liteye Systems, Inc. - will be making its debut at the Farnborough International Airshow (FIA) next week, 11-17 July.
Mark Radford, speaking for the AUDS team, said: “The threat from small, commercially available UAVs is high and AUDS has been specifically designed, fully tested and is production ready to deal with the problem. Not only can it detect, track, disrupt, and defeat drones, it can also provide vital evidence for subsequent criminal charges. Farnborough, with its wide range of international military, security and commercial visitors provides the team with an excellent opportunity to demonstrate its capability.”
The AUDS system is designed for countering drones or unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in remote border areas, at key infrastructure sites such as airports, air fields, nuclear power stations, oil refineries or for protecting political, sporting or VIP events in urban areas. It can be operated from fixed locations and from mobile platforms.
The AUDS system is the world’s first fully integrated detect-track-disrupt-defeat counter-UAV system that can detect an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or drone six miles (10km) away using electronic scanning radar, track it using precision infrared and daylight cameras and specialist video tracking software before disrupting the flight using an inhibitor to block the radio signals that control it.
This detect, track, disrupt, defeat process is very quick and typically takes 8-15 secs. Using AUDS, the operator can effectively take control of a drone and force a safe landing or send it back home. The AUDS team has now carried out over 400 hours of ‘live’ testing in government related trials against more than 400 flown sorties of group 1 UAVs.
At Farnborough, the AUDS team will showcase a ‘live’ system comprising Blighter Surveillance Systems’ A400 Series Ku band electronic scanning air security radar, Chess Dynamics’ Hawkeye stabilised electro-optic director, infrared and daylight cameras and target tracking software, and a directional radio frequency (RF) inhibitor from Enterprise Control Systems.
Interest in the AUDS system from the defence and commercial sectors has been significant since the production-ready system was launched in September 2015. In May 2016, the AUDS system was selected – through Liteye Systems – by the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for evaluation at US airports as part of its Pathfinder Programme. This FAA research programme is designed to evaluate technologies that can be used to detect and identify unauthorised unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drone flights near airports.