No.162 / Mar 6, 2023
Maybe everyone has heard about drones once—unmanned aircraft that are operated by wireless control. Drones are known for their various usage for military, delivery, filming, sports, and infrastructure management. With the release of entry-level drones, drones have now become a hobby for ordinary people as well.
Because of the popularization of drones, drone technology has developed rapidly. One example is anti-drone technology. As you can guess from word “anti”, this technology is meant to incapacitate drones. The main reason for development of incapacitating technology is that many countries have tried to develop military power using drones. A common example is the use of identifying and attacking drones occurring in the Russia’s war in Ukraine. The military use of drones has long been a hot topic of discussion. This is because drones are agile and difficult to efficiently deal with, leading to problems in tactical performance and operation. As a result, anti-drone technology has been developed to prepare for emergencies such as wars and operations. Drone incapacitating technology can be largely divided into physical and electronic incapacitating technology. Defense industry company Lockheed Martin, for instance, is developing technologies that destroy drones through high-power lasers. This is effective if it is not a cluster drone attack, but its use is limited because it requires immense power and can cause secondary damage. Physical incapacitation technology refers to a technology that disables drones with a physical attack. In the early days, technologies were developed to neutralize drones by throwing nets, collisions between drones, and training eagles or hawks. Net-using method has been used very limitedly because nets are required to be refit after they are used. The use of trained eagles or hawks has low scalability because this method can only be used with well-trained birds. Electronic incapacitation technology has been in the spotlight for a long time. Radio Frequency (RF) jamming attacks that interfere with communication when controlling drones by RF and Global Positioning System (GPS) jamming attacks that are effective in autonomous flight based on GPS signals are the oldest attack vectors. Therefore, countermeasures have already been developed and are already being used not only for military but also for civilian drones. Attempts are also being made to disable drones through circuit disablement.
As such, drones have not been in the spotlight too long, but owing to their necessity in military use, rapid development has been made. Many people believe that drones in the future may be equipped with technology that can avoid anti-drone technology.
By Seo Myeong-jae, AG Reporter
smj001209s@ajou.ac.kr
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