Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

A24 technology
Tuesday 1 OcTOber 2019
As attack drones multiply, Israeli firms develop defenses

YEHUD, Israel (AP) — Isra- Elsewhere in the region, Is- "There is a lot of knowledge from several kilometers whether they pose a threat.
el, one of the pioneers of raeli warplanes last month that was adapted from the away any threat that ap- He said the system has a
drone warfare, is now on struck what Israel said was area of unmanned aerial proaches," he said. range of several kilometers,
the front lines of an arms but still has some limitations.
race to protect against at- If an operator is flying a
tacks by the unmanned air- commercial drone whose
craft. signal hasn't been previ-
A host of Israeli companies ously collected, it won't be
have developed defense identified. The system would
systems they say can de- also struggle to identify so-
tect or destroy incoming phisticated drones built by
drones. But obstacles re- hostile governments, since
main, particularly when op- those signatures are likely
erating in crowded urban unknown.
airspaces. Still, he said the system can
"Fighting these systems is track "the vast majority" of
really hard ... not just be- popular drones on the mar-
cause you need to detect ket.
them, but you also need to He said the firm has con-
detect them everywhere ducted several success-
and all the time," said Ul- ful tests with the New York
rike Franke, a policy fellow Police Department and
at the European Council of counts Israel's national po-
Foreign Relations. lice force and the Defense
Drones present unique Ministry as customers. Dur-
challenges that set them ing this year's Eurovision
apart from traditional air- In this Monday, Sept. 9, 2019 photo, Ariel Gomez, a systems engineer at Israel Aerospace Indus- song contest in Tel Aviv, he
borne threats, such as mis- tries, works on the Popstar system that can track and identify flying objects day or night without said police caught more
siles or warplanes. being detected, at Israel Aerospace Industries, in the Israeli town of Yehud near Tel Aviv. than 20 operators who
They can fly below stan- Associated Press were flying drones in no-fly
dard military radar systems zones.
and use GPS technology to According to Israel's Econ-
execute pinpoint attacks an Iranian-trained Hezbol- vehicles, which is some- Popstar focuses on protect- omy Ministry, UAV exports
on sensitive targets for a lah squad that was prepar- thing that the military had ing fixed, high-value tar- topped $4.6 billion be-
fraction of the price of a ing to launch a group of to deal with for a long, long gets like airports or energy tween 2005 and 2013,
fighter jet. They can also drones toward Israel from time," said Ben Nassi, a re- infrastructure. Experts say it around 10% of the country's
be deployed in "swarms," Syria. A day later, Hezbol- searcher at Israel's Ben Gu- is much more difficult to use defense exports.
which can trick or elude lah said two Israeli drones rion University specializing the technology in crowded Over a dozen Israeli firms
conventional defense sys- crashed outside the group's in drone threats. urban environments, where presented cutting-edge
tems. Even small off-the- offices in Beirut. Israeli me- In a laboratory near Israel's heavy air traffic and high- anti-drone technologies
shelf drones can be turned dia said the drone strike main international airport, rise buildings can create at London's DSEI exhibition
into weapons by rigging had destroyed valuable Israel Aerospace Industries confusion and obstacles. this month, from defense
them with explosives or equipment used to make offered a glance at its new "Most of the industry is ac- heavyweights Elbit Systems,
simply crashing them in guided missiles. optical detection system: tually targeting the threats Raphael and Israel Aero-
crowded areas. Earlier this month, the Israeli a black cube resembling a in a no-fly area," said Nassi. space Industries, to smaller
A series of drone strikes military said an unmanned souped-up subwoofer that "When it comes to populat- start-ups like Vorpal. They
across the Middle East, in- aircraft crossed into Israel it says can spot a standard ed areas, law enforcement are part of a booming glob-
cluding an attack on a from the Gaza Strip and commercial drone from has much more difficulties al industry with competitors
Saudi oil field and process- dropped explosives on a several miles (kilometers) to understand whether a from the U.S., Europe, Sin-
ing plant that jolted inter- military vehicle, causing away. drone is being used mali- gapore, and China.
national markets earlier this minimal damage and no The state-owned compa- ciously or not." Anti-drone defenses fall
month, have underscored casualties. It was the sec- ny says the Popstar system Israeli company Vorpal says into several categories. De-
the devastating effective- ond such attack from Gaza can track and identify fly- it has found a partial solu- tection systems usually rely
ness of small unmanned at- in the past year. ing objects day or night tion to these challenges by on either radio or optical
tack aircraft. These threats are not con- without being detected. developing a system that technology to spot incom-
The drone attack on Sau- fined to the battlefield. Developers say the system, can detect and track virtu- ing drones.
di energy infrastructure London's Gatwick Airport which has already been ally all commercial UAVs in Other systems can stop the
knocked out about half of shut for parts of three days, field tested by the Israeli urban airspaces. aircraft with jammers that
the kingdom's oil supplies. stranding over 100,000 trav- military, can differentiate Avner Turniansky, Vorpal's down aircraft by scram-
Yemen's Iran-aligned elers ahead of Christmas threats from standard ci- vice president of strategy, bling communications,
Houthi rebels claimed the last year, after drone sight- vilian aircraft with an ad- said the company has kinetic systems that try to
attack, but the U.S. has ings. vanced algorithm. compiled a database of knock the craft out of the
blamed Iran itself, which Israel has long been a dom- "On a daily basis we see signals — what it calls the sky or systems that allow
is a leading developer of inant player in the military these small-scale threats, "signature" — emitted by authorities to seize control
drone technology and is drone export business, de- such as drones, that can tie 95% of drones on the mar- of an aircraft.
locked in a bitter rivalry veloping small attack air- up a whole airport and shut ket. But for now, none of these
with both Saudi Arabia and craft as well as long-range down the entire air traffic," With these signatures, it systems can provide full
Israel. spy planes. Now, Israeli firms said Ariel Gomez, a systems says it can identify a drone protection.
Similar drone attacks on are at the forefront of a engineer at IAI who worked — and locate its opera- "It's a nasty target. It's a
Saudi Arabia's oil industry global industry developing on the new drone detec- tor — within two seconds. problem," said Turniansky.
by the Houthis a month ear- means to protect against tion platform. Customers can track these "It's going to be cat and
lier caused a "limited fire." the drone threat. "Our system can discern aircraft and determine mouse for a while."q