US Army tests crowd-sourcing counter-UAV smartphone app

The US Army has tested an app that allows smartphones to serve as counter-UAV assets by providing visual information and location data of suspicious drones to central authorities.

The US Army Central’s Task Force 39 recently trialed the counter-UAV smartphone utility at the McEntire Joint National Guard Base in South Carolina. The exercise involved several unit members spread across a wide area using the app to snap photographs of spotted drones. Those images, along with accompanying geographical coordinates, were then automatically relayed to a unified command post, which used incoming feeds from participants to lock in on and track the vehicle.

As its marketing-indifferent name suggests, the CARPE Dronvm app was developed for a US Army innovation program to create and integrate new tech assets into armed forces operations. Produced by the MITRE corporation, the smartphone capability is not only designed to create a more affordable…