How to Track Small UAS in Urban Environments?

How to Track Small UAS in Urban Environments?

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The recent spate of drone assaults has shown the need for persistent surveillance and tracking of small UAS in urban environments. The US government is a step closer to deploying a new system for tracking small drones flying over busy cities.

A project initiated by DARPA (US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) launched two years ago – the Aerial Dragnet initiative – could begin testing in 2018, an agency official told thedailybeast.com. The initiative was designed to provide persistent, wide-area surveillance of all [drones] operating below 1,000 feet in a large city.

DARPA has already selected three organizations — the University of Washington and defense firms Lockheed Martin and Raytheon — to test out possible drone-tracking technology.

If it works and the government funds it, Aerial Dragnet could help military commanders and law enforcement officials monitor drones zipping through urban battlefields or flying over densely populated city neighborhoods in the United States.

The Aerial Dragnet will also include UASs carrying sophisticated sensors. The solution could involve a network of “surveillance nodes,” each monitoring an area the size of an urban neighborhood, according to DARPA. “Using sensor technologies that can look over and between buildings, the surveillance nodes would maintain UAS tracks even when the craft disappear from sight around corners or behind objects.”

One goal is to give U.S. troops advance notice of incoming enemy drones and help military aviators avoid air-to-air collisions over the battlefield. The system could also find civilian applications to help protect U.S. metropolitan areas from UAS-enabled terrorist threats.

Right now, the enemy can afford many more drones than governments can afford drone-monitoring systems. To keep Aerial Dragnet affordable on a large scale, DARPA is asking contractors to develop technologies whose acquisition cost is less than $10,000 per 20 square kilometers.