Here’s how the US Army’s new anti-drone weapon works
In recent years, anti-drone warfare has been made a priority by armies around the world: these small, inexpensive, accessible and highly mobile aircraft represent a real strategic challenge. Equipped with an explosive charge, they can come to threaten bases or convoys by thwarting enemy surveillance equipment. Complex urban environments, where many civilians live, make the task of air defenses even more difficult.
In order to effectively combine anti-drone control and population protection – thus avoiding firearms or explosives – the US military has devised the Mobile Force Protection Program (MFP). The main objective of the MFP is to protect “high value” convoys. Developed for four years by the Agency for Defense Advanced Research Projects (Darpa), the MFP employs defense drones that manage to neutralize the target by firing coils into its propellers to cause it to fall.
Darpa a ad on June 7 that the development of the program was coming to an end; the MFP should therefore soon be deployed on a larger scale. This mobile defense system is based above all on an X-band radar – super-high frequency – which automatically detects threatening drones. “The radar then associates targets with specific interceptors through an automated decision engine linked to a command and control system, which initiates and guides the interceptors with two types of drone countermeasures, while still being moving and without operator intervention, ”explains Darpa.
