Counter-Drone Protection for World’s Largest Hospital Ships 

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With the increase in COVID-19 patients, U.S. Navy’s two hospital ships have been deployed to New York and Los Angeles in an effort to alleviate the pressure on local hospitals during the COVID-19 crisis. Now they will be provided with counter-drone defense.

The vessels, which were transformed from hulking oil tankers into 1,000-bed hospital ships, are the largest hospital ships in the world. The USNS Mercy and USNS Comfort are equipped with 12 operating rooms, a blood bank, a medical laboratory, a pharmacy, an optometry lab and a CT scanner. The vessels have treated some 20 patients since their deployment. 

Now, counter-drone technology is becoming essential to provide security to ensure that lifesaving operations continue unhindered. The US Department of Defense is deploying new counter-drone systems to support military medical facilities’ response to COVID-19, including hospital ships.

The system detects drone signals and identifies their position to facilitate effective countermeasures. The detection and defeat measures do not interfere with other military and civilian systems, which is a key safety factor for use in active operations.

Rome Lab, formally known as the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Information Directorate, is developing the counter-drone systems. 

To prevent adversary drones guided by careless or malicious operators from disrupting vital military operations, AFRL scientists and engineers developed a suite of C-sUAS technologies that can detect and defeat drones through electronic means, according to romesentinel.com.