By : Satyaki Paul
On June 21, 2021 the Indian Air Force station in Jammu was attacked by using drones causing two explosions. This incident injured two IAF officers and also severely damaged the portion of the single-storeybuilding at the airport’s technical area.
This attack is also one of the very first drone attack from Pakistan’s Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) after mimicking similar incidences from Syria and Yemen. The drones are unmanned aerial vehicle which can be remotely controlled by computers from a far distance. Thus, such new age technology poses a risk to national security and the recent incidence led to the need for an anti-drone system shielding critical installations in our country.
In this context, several international private defence contractors, have initiated to propose off-the-shelf anti-drone tech to counter hostile Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The international companies mostly which are based out in Israel, United States, and even China, have developed anti-drone systems using current technologies such as radars, frequency jammers, optic and thermal sensors, etc.
The defence company named Rafael, the one behind Israel’s famed Iron Dome missile system, has also developed something called the Drone Dome. Similar to the Iron Dome, which identifies and intercepts incoming missiles, the Drone Dome detects and intercepts drones.The United States-based Fortem Technologies also functionsits anti-drone system in a similar manner, but it uses an interceptor drone—termed as the “DroneHunter”. The DroneHunter will be used to pursue and capture hostile drones. The DroneHunter fires from its “NetGun” a spider web-shaped net to seize targets midair and tow them.Besides the regular detection and surveillance, DroneShield, an Australian publicly listed company, also offers a portable solution in the form of a drone gun that can be used to point and ‘shoot’. Further, the company’s DroneGun Tactical and DroneGun MKIII engage in radio frequency disruption that will interrupt the hostile drone’s video feed and force it to land on the spot or return to the operative.
In Indian context, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has developed an “Anti-Drone System”which will be introduced by the end of this year, according to a March, 2021 press release by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).In similar veins, CNBC-TV18 also informed that Adani Defence Systems and Technologies Pvt. Ltd has also pitched an anti-drone system to Indian defence agencies. The author works as a Ph.D. Research Scholar at the Department of Anthropology, University of Calcutta, and the co-author of the book Anthropology For All (2021).