Demand for drone defense surges, and start-ups compete to develop
With the rapid development of drone technology, the global demand for anti-drone technology is also increasing. Especially after London Gatwick Airport was thrown into chaos by a drone attack in 2018, the development of anti-drone technology has become a problem that needs to be solved urgently. Startups have joined the competition and proposed a variety of innovative solutions to deal with the security threats posed by drones.
Gatwick Airport incident attracts attention
| Gatwick Airport drone incident | |
| Location | Gatwick Airport,West Sussex, England |
| Cause | Reports of drone activity within 1km (0.62mi) of the airport boundary |
| Outcome | ~140,000 passengers affected ~1,000 flights diverted/cancelled |
| Arrests | 2; both suspects released without charge |
The drone attack at Gatwick Airport not only caused millions of pounds of losses, but also attracted widespread attention to drone defense technology. Although the idea of simply shooting down a drone seems straightforward and effective, many experts believe that this method has safety risks because the bullets fired may fall into innocent places, causing greater damage and losses. Therefore, start-ups began to explore safer and more efficient anti-drone technology.
The future and industry prospects of anti-drone technology
Jorg Lamprecht, co-founder of Dedrone Holdings, said, "Laws can't stop drones, only technology can." This shows that the development of anti-drone technology has become a top priority. In order to cope with the growing number of drones, technology companies have proposed a variety of solutions, including launch nets, jamming nets, and large drone capture systems.
Among them, "SkyWall" developed by OpenWorks Engineering is a shoulder-mounted cannon that captures drones by launching nets. DroneShield provides a signal jammer shaped like a big gun that can force drones to land by jamming signals. DeDrone is creating an integrated network to interfere by intercepting and identifying drone signals. These technologies have their own characteristics and provide possible solutions for different application scenarios.
Summary
With the popularity of drones and the increase in the frequency of use, the development of anti-drone technology will continue to be an important research direction. Although current technology has made some progress, in the face of continuous innovation and upgrading of drones, the continuous evolution of technology is still the key to solving the problem. The innovative efforts of start-ups are driving the development of the entire industry and providing a variety of possible solutions for future drone defense.
