Defence against minidrones in Bure and Payerne: demonstrating the limits of drone defence technology
In November 2023, principle experiments for defence against minidrones were carried out over four weeks in Bure and Payerne. Drone defence systems from two companies were thoroughly tested during the experiments to identify the limits of their capabilities. This allowed insights to be gained on the state of the drone defence technology and a valuable contribution thus made to the ongoing procurement project.
Sarah Trösch, specialist area Innovation and Processes and Joe Boucher, specialist area Research Management, competence sector Science and Technology
The principle experiments were organised by armasuisse Science and Technology (S+T) in cooperation with the competence sector CC+R and RUAG. Two application scenarios of drone defence were tested: First the protection of a building in an urban area in the training village Nalé in Bure. Then the protection of an airfield on the military airfield Payerne. This enabled an insight into the challenges involved in different environments and effective ranges for drone defence systems.
The experiments on the defence against minidrones took place over four weeks in November and December 2023, with two weeks in Bure and two in Payerne. The experiments were carried out as part of a procurement project for closing the capability gap in the defence against minidrones.
In Switzerland, unmanned aircraft with a maximum take-off weight between 2 and 20 kg are called «minidrones». They normally have a range of up to 25 km and a maximum flight altitude of around 900 metres. Some models can fly higher or for longer.
«Command and control» in focus
In addition to the search for suitable resources for protection against minidrones, it also entailed gaining experience in building up the expertise on drone defence systems. The focus was on the C2 systems (command and control systems). This involved identifying how skilfully the C2 systems combine the information from their sensors and how efficiently they display the results for the user, so that timely defence against the drone can be executed. As some sensor and effector technologies are still under development, the focus was on an effective C2 system, which forms the core. Thus new subsystems can be integrated as soon as they are fully developed and the drone defence system remains up to date. In addition, the individual sensors and effectors of the drone defence systems were examined in specific test scenarios.
Obtaining a realistic impression
An important part of experience building consisted of defining what the drone defence systems are capable of. In order to determine this, the Red team developed a series of «missions» for drone flights which differ in their complexity. The most simple missions were structured such that the defence system recognised the drone and could take defence action. With increasing levels of difficulty, the missions were designed such that they exploited the weaknesses of the sensors and made detection and defence more difficult. For this purpose, the Red team deployed a series of different drones, from standard quadcopters to self-constructed fixed wing aircraft. To gain an overview of the two C2 systems during the experiments, both systems were recorded in order to enable a 1:1 comparison of their performance during each mission and to document important cases for later examination.
Drone defence systems: Drone defence systems consist of three main components: first, the sensor system, for example, a mixture of radar, radio frequency direction finders, and cameras, second the C2 system (command and control) as a core system, which merges sensor information and forwards it to the effectors, and third the effectors, to ensure the kinetic or non-kinetic defence against the drone.
Final conclusion – guidance in the procurement project
During the experiments, the test team was able to obtain a realistic picture of where the development of drone defence systems is currently standing in the two companies invited. The knowledge gained provides an important basis for decision-making in the continuation of the procurement project.