Protective measures against drones

[darklordtom]

Hi All,

Curious about what can be done against drones that have broken various rules, say maximum flight height or flying over protected areas. This is all super hypothetical, so please let's not get into legal / moral discussions, let's keep it technical and all agree that none of this should ever be done. Safety first. I'm plain and simple curious about the technical side. Here's a few questions to get you going but any other input is highly welcome:

1) I live in a country where the flight height limit is about 60m. Hypothetically I go bonkers and fly to 500m. Can this be somehow detected? Can it be detected after the fact? What does detection entail - just the fact that I'm flying or also serial numbers / identifiable information? Would any country have those capabilities or would you expect only well developed countries to have it?

2) Say you fly over a protected area, one of clear importance - parliament buildings, well known tourist sites, government or military installations. Is the possibility of someone shooting an EMP at your drone actually realistic? Are there other counter measures possible?

3) Whenever people get fined what are the circumstances? Is it usually someone on the ground (police / security) realizing that you are flying a drone in an unsafe way and slamming you with a ticket or is it something else (hovering around point 1).

Super curious about this, big thanks in advance for technical and solid responses!

 

[Lapeer20m]

My guess is that High profile sensitive areas, like military bases, in the USA likely have the ability to immobilize a drone with radio signals. Either by blocking Gps and controller inputs, or even using enough power to fry the sensitive electronics.

There is a company that sells a Mobil version for government use.

Dji drones are also geo fenced and will not enter high profile no fly zones, like Washington, D.C. This is supposed to be a highly secured area with top notch defenses, but a guy flew a homemade gyro copter and landed it on the lawn of the Capitol a couple years ago.

Some countries have expiremented with Eagles or other birds of prey.

There are videos of larger drones with nets that are able to "catch" invading drones mid-air.

My guess is that most military installations are not well protected against drone flyovers, but also small consumer drones haven't yet posed much of a national security threat to our military.

I do think if you attempted to fly over a restricted airspace like a military base you will likely be caught.

Dji has proposed future drones broadcast a unique user ID that can be received by government officials so that drones can be more easily tracked back to their owners. I wouldn't be surprised if some dji drones already have this feature and it's simply not public.

 

[darklordtom]

My guess is that High profile sensitive areas, like military bases, in the USA likely have the ability to immobilize a drone with radio signals. Either by blocking Gps and controller inputs, or even using enough power to fry the sensitive electronics.

There is a company that sells a Mobil version for government use.

Dji drones are also geo fenced and will not enter high profile no fly zones, like Washington, D.C. This is supposed to be a highly secured area with top notch defenses, but a guy flew a homemade gyro copter and landed it on the lawn of the Capitol a couple years ago.

Some countries have expiremented with Eagles or other birds of prey.

There are videos of larger drones with nets that are able to "catch" invading drones mid-air.

My guess is that most military installations are not well protected against drone flyovers, but also small consumer drones haven't yet posed much of a national security threat to our military.

I do think if you attempted to fly over a restricted airspace like a military base you will likely be caught.

Dji has proposed future drones broadcast a unique user ID that can be received by government officials so that drones can be more easily tracked back to their owners. I wouldn't be surprised if some dji drones already have this feature and it's simply not public.

Phenomenal answer, thanks so much, very informative!

 

[WIMMPYIII]

There is no detecting anything at this point it. The tickets are due to people taking off in areas that are restricted like national parks or posting the videos on there personal account and having the ranger or officer track you down and deliver it.
Where the laws and FAA guidelines really come in is when you cause damage or harm. Then they take into account that you were flying in an area or in a way that was unlawful or unsafe.
This opens up all kinds of lawsuit possibilities.

 

[Lapeer20m]

To your other questions:

If people fly too high or otherwise violate FAA rules in the USA and nobody gets hurt, there arent any near misses, and basically nobody knows about it, the FAA does not appear to have a mechanism
in place to find these people.

Most of the published info on FAA action toward drones tends to be related to either flying in no fly zones, like DC or above a stadium, or crashing in a populated area.

 

[WEOTN]

Monitoring the FPV frequencies would be a sure clue. What's to say flight logs aren't sent to DJI FBI DHS ETC ?

 

[buzzlightyr]

I always wonder too? If they are able to detect a drone in a no fly zone?

 

[Kilrah]

I always wonder too? If they are able to detect a drone in a no fly zone?

Most likely not, it takes someone to see/hear it or an actual incident to happen.

Most of the published info on FAA action toward drones tends to be related to either flying in no fly zones, like DC or above a stadium, or crashing in a populated area.

And of course videos that stupid people are all proud to post online first thing. Or the even more stupid ones who just have to brag in these "height/distance record leaderboard" threads...
I doubt anyone intentionally scours the web to look for violations, but if your video goes popular and someone responsible happens to come across they're kinda forced to do something about it.

 

[WEOTN]

He didn't elaborate on what kinds of countermeasures they had but he did say that if they wanted to take an sUAS down within the 5 mile airspace it wasn't an issue at all.

It has crossed my mind that there's a chance for this being responsible for some "falling out of the sky" posts. LE trying their new gizmos on unsuspecting drones? If I can imagine it, it must be possible, right? The way the police departments in even small USA towns have been gifted with military hardware and munitions, it would be no stretch of the imagination.

My town has WIFI hubs all over the place on power and phone poles. What if they could be tricked into broadcasting the kill code to bring down drones? Or deliberately?

One step further, I'm hoping to find someone has reverse engineered DJI firmware code for better understanding of what might be in there. Microsoft puts backdoors into Windows for the government, might DJI do the same for 'drone killer' devices? Think back to Cincinnati Microwave selling radar units to LE, then radar detectors to citizens, and upping the ante with new bands...

No, I'm not paranoid, just practical.

 

[Hexagon]

Most likely not, it takes someone to see/hear it or an actual incident to happen.


And of course videos that stupid people are all proud to post online first thing. Or the even more stupid ones who just have to brag in these "height/distance record leaderboard" threads...
I doubt anyone intentionally scours the web to look for violations, but if your video goes popular and someone responsible happens to come across they're kinda forced to do something about it.

is there real threat when someone tries a distance test on totally isolated areas, such as an isolated beach aiming towards the ocean, or in a small desert area? Personally that would be my only playground in terms of distance test since I see no potential threat

 

[Hexagon]

One step further, I'm hoping to find someone has reverse engineered DJI firmware code for better understanding of what might be in there...

It has been done in the Phantom 3 Series

 

[rydfree]

Monitoring the FPV frequencies would be a sure clue.

Exactly , these are not stealth aircraft . All one needs to do is scan the FPV channels and they get a pilots eye view of where the drone is and most likely where the operator is from the video signal . They would not even have to actually decode and see the video , just track that big honking video transmission signal .

 

[beach_Dr]

A family member in construction has lost a phantom surveying a office building they where working on across the road from US embassy. Apparently strayed across the road and drone went down on the US side of the fence. (No I was not there just heard his story) So blocking/intercepting signal seems feasible.