Watch: DARPA Demonstrated New Counter-Drone Concept

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A novel counter-drone concept has been demonstrated by DARPA. The technology that is part of the agency’s Mobile Force Protection program (MFP) launches reusable interceptors that shoot “strong, stringy streamers” directly at adversary drones in order to foul their propulsion systems and cause them to fall from the sky. 

The system, as it exists now, is primarily intended to offer a way to protect convoys from small drones while avoiding or minimizing collateral damage by not using high-explosives to take down incoming threats. DARPA also states the system can defend military installations.

During the recent demonstration at Eglin Air Force Base, the MFP technology demonstrator successfully neutralized “tactically-relevant drones.” 

The new system was mounted onto the back of a Humvee and seems to include a sophisticated sensor suite in addition to at least four, or possibly eight, interceptor launch tubes. 

DARPA states that the system uses a novel X-band radar system that is claimed to be able to automatically sense and identify UAS targets. The system then uses “an automated decision engine” to match those targets to specific interceptors in its inventory without the need for a human operator to manually launch those units. 

The system consists of both rotary and fixed wing interceptors that employ two types of drone countermeasures, but the accompanying footage depicts only a rotary wing interceptor launching the stringy anti-rotor countermeasures, according to thedrive.com. 

Propellers and rotors are, by far, the most common means of propulsion for small drones, commercial and military, on the market today. It’s unknown how well the system might work on drones potentially featuring other forms of propulsion, but such a concept could presumably foul the intakes of small jet engines or any articulated control surfaces found on drones as well, if it could hit them.