Non-kinetic counter-drone measures work by interrupting or intercepting communication signals. These methods usually end with the drone falling to the ground at considerable speeds making it an undesirable countermeasure to use over crowds. While it may not be appropriate to use over crowds, it could be useful in other environments. Always check with your country’s laws when considering drone countermeasures, drone jammers and drone spoofers are not legal in the US. Let’s look at some of the different non-kinetic c-uas methods.
Drone Jammers
What is a drone jammer?
Jammers work by blasting electromagnetic noise at the radio frequencies that drones use to operate and emit information. Effectively, they drown out the conversation between a drone and its operator. This is usually either 2.4Ghz or 5.8Ghz, which are non-assigned, public frequencies. This prevents jammers from interfering with manned aircraft, cell phones, public broadcasts, or other dedicated radio bands.
Jammers can either be stationary, mounted devices, or built into highly mobile, gun-like devices to allow someone to land the drone on the ground safely.
What happens to a drone after it's jammed?
- The drone will land or,
- The drone will return to its home location
What are the disadvantages of drone jamming?
Jammers have five major disadvantages as C-UAS:
- Drone jammers are illegal in most countries, including the US.
- Drone jammers are less effective against drones that have been pre-programmed to fly a certain path, since drones can fly without GPS.
- Drone jammers do not allow the C-UAS to achieve positive control over its targets.
- Drone jammers do not locate the pilot or flightpath
- Drone jammers disrupt other nearby communication signals such as cellphones and could prevent 9-1-1 calls in the event of a real attack.
Are drone jammers legal?
Drone jammers are not legal in the US per FCC regulations.
"The use of "cell jammers" or similar devices designed to intentionally block, jam, or interfere with authorized radio communications (signal blockers, GPS jammers, or text stoppers, etc.) is a violation of federal law. These devices pose serious risks to critical public safety communications, and can prevent you and others from making 9-1-1 and other emergency calls. Jammers can also interfere with law enforcement communications.
Operation of a jammer in the United States may subject you to substantial monetary penalties, seizure of the unlawful equipment, and criminal sanctions including imprisonment.
Applicable Law
"The Communications Act of 1934
- Section 301 - requires persons operating or using radio transmitters to be licensed or authorized under the Commission’s rules (47 U.S.C. § 301
- Section 333 - prohibits willful or malicious interference with the radio communications of any station licensed or authorized under the Act or operated by the U.S. Government (47 U.S.C. § 333)"
Drone GPS Spoofers
What is a drone spoofer?
While jammers work by blocking RF frequencies, spoofers send fake GPS signals that mimic legitimate ones. Spoofers hijack a drone's communication link by emitting a counterfeit signal that the device reads as valid because it is a copy of the real signal.
The spoofer works by emitting a stronger counterfeit signal. The spoofer can cause a small delay between drone and controller; then, the spoofer emits the stronger false signal. The spoofer now has control over the device and can pilot the drone. The spoofer deceives the GPS receiver
GPS spoofing is hard to defend against if your UAS device is using GPS for flight. GPS is a signal broadcasted from satellites. You can't add standard protections tools such as encryption and certificates to GPS satellite signals.
What happens to a spoofed drone?
- Direct the flight; you are now the pilot
- Access any data on the drone, including the camera feed and historical flight data
Disadvantage to using a spoofer to counter a drone?
Spoofer have four major disadvantages as C-UAS:
- Drone spoofers are illegal in most countries, including the US.
- Drone spoofers are less effective against drones not using GPS.
- Drone spoofers do not locate the pilot or flightpath.
- Drone jammers disrupt other nearby GPS signals making it difficult for authorities to use GPS devices in the event of a real emergency.
Are GPS spoofers legal in the US?
No, GPS spoofing devices are illegal in the United States.
FAQs
Drone Jammers
Effectively, they drown out the conversation between a drone and its operator. This is usually either 2.4Ghz or 5.8Ghz, which are non-assigned, public frequencies. This prevents jammers from interfering with manned aircraft, cell phones, public broadcasts, or other dedicated radio bands.
Can a jammer disable a drone? ›
These drone frequency jammers work by overwhelming the drone's communications equipment with stronger signals on these frequencies, thus drowning out the legitimate signals. With many drone models, this will force the aircraft to land or to return to a predefined home position such as the location of the pilot.
How to beat a drone jammer? ›
The best way to defeat a Jammer is to understand how they work. 99% of them jam the 2.4 and 5.8Ghz frequencies. So don't fly using those frequencies would be a good start. I have never worried about jamming but I have used all of those frequencies before.
What is anti jamming technology for drones? ›
GPS Spoofing Anti Drone Jamming Solution
By generating fake GPS signals to supersede the authentic signals, the GPS spoofing system will deceive invading drones to follow the fake GPS signals to land at the desired location. This anti-drone jamming solution enables flexible control over key low-altitude areas.
What is the most effective weapon against drones? ›
High-powered lasers and microwave systems focus a light beam or an electromagnetic pulse toward the drone to physically damage its electronics. Nets and guns are fired from the ground or another drone to stop rogue drones' flight mechanisms and rotor blades.
What is the app that detects drones at night? ›
AARTOS™ Mobile App.
Can I block a jammer? ›
Unless you can physically locate the jammer itself — which usually looks like a walkie-talkie, a cell phone, or a wireless router — and disable it, blocking signal jammers is not your most viable option.
Can we bypass a jammer? ›
Just move to a distance where the jammer stops functioning. If you've gone through it, you will understand that it would be impossible to bypass a jammer's frequency.
Can you knock a drone out of the sky? ›
Under federal law, a drone is classified as an aircraft. Therefore, damaging, destroying, disabling, or wrecking a drone could result in federal criminal charges under 18 U.S.C. § 32, which deals with the destruction of aircraft or aircraft facilities.
How do you destroy a drone signal? ›
High Power Microwave (HPM) devices
The EMP interferes with radio links and disrupts or even destroys the electronic circuitry inside drones (plus any other electronic device within range) due to the damaging voltage and currents it creates.
Some examples of counter drone technology include radio frequency jammers, Global Positioning System (GPS) spoofers, net guns, and even trained eagles.
Can drones be electronically jammed? ›
For electronic warfare, tools can jam the communications link between drones and their operators — causing them to either return home or hover, or force them to crash.
What device is used to disable drones? ›
Designed to look similar to a bullpup rifle, the Drone Killer can disable unmanned air vehicles, or drones, of all types.
Can you jam military drones? ›
A drone signal jammer can disable even the most high-power, high-tech drones. Using electronic warfare countermeasures to mitigate drones is the safest way to deal with them, with the least collateral damage and lowest degree of risk to the “blue forces” (the jammer operators).
How effective are GPS jammers? ›
When a GPS jammer is in use, it interferes with all sorts of telecommunications devices such as cell phones, internet networks, toll readers, and more. Not only are GPS jammers incredibly powerful, they are compact, quick to use, require low power, and are small enough to plug into a car's cigarette lighter.
How effective are drone strikes? ›
Drones proved highly effective to bridge time and space and reach across borders to track, target, and eliminate al Qaeda and affiliate leaders in their remote and hostile safe havens. CIA drone strikes became increasingly effective to disrupt and destroy their C2 networks and eliminate threats to US national security.
Do signal boosters for drones work? ›
Boosting the controller will make the controller signal go further, but the drone will still transmit a video signal at the same power unless you attach a booster to the drone too, so you'll need a bigger antenna in order to reach further.
Can you intercept a drone signal? ›
RF scanners can catch drones by checking the electromagnetic spectrum; they recognize drone transmissions. But drones that rely on GPS and don't use radio signals to navigate will not be caught this way.
