German authorities have successfully tested an anti-drone system to protect restricted airport airspaces from invading craft, combining artificial intelligence (AI), tag-teaming sensors, and low-tech – but very efficient – nets spat by pursuing uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV).
On Thursday, officials announced the successful trials conducted earlier in the week over a field near the Hamburg airport. The anti-drone system – known as the Falke Project – uses ground-based units that detect unauthorized craft in restricted areas around airports. Those interface with surveillance tech operated by other facility stakeholders to swap location and other information on invaders. The rapid processing of that data in a wider, super-fast network allows policing UAV to be quickly dispatched, and fly up to 120 km/h to catch up with and snare unauthorized craft with grasping nets shot from a safe distance. Intruders are then transported away from passenger plane…
