Australian kamikaze drone destroys enemy drones

This report is the first in an ongoing series, called Drone Takedown, of drone counter techniques and other methods used to bring down or destroy airborne drones. With so many instances where drones have become an accidental hazard or have been used on purpose to inflict harm, it comes as no surprise that new companies spring up to offer ways in which a dangerous drone can be inactivated.

Today we will take a look at the Australian company MySky Technologies, that has invented a kamikaze drone that can take out enemy drones, including fixed wing ones.

The Australian kamikaze drone

The company from Adelaide has developed a drone that can fly super fast and has razor-sharp propeller blades, that can smash into an enemy drone in a kamikaze-style attack. MySky Technologies will present their solution to the Army in Canberra next week. The so-called ‘drone killer’ flies into the enemy drone at about 160mph, destroying it.

Steve Auch-Schwelk, CEO and Counter-Drone Architect, said there was a range of uses for the technology.

“In the battlefield, we’ve got an asymmetric threat which is where some non-state actors like ISIS would be able to buy relatively low-cost drones through the internet or even off the shelf and they can then militarise them,” he said.

“They strap bombs to them. Mortars or grenades. Then there are state actors. The big unmanned aerial vehicles.”

MySky sensor technology

The MySky kamikaze drone comes with a whole range of sensors, such as an infrared sensor, a radio, acoustic sensors, adaptive radar, ultraviolet and a camera. These sensors combined are called a sensor suite and can also be used separately from the drone to monitor other drone activity in the skies around a football stadium for instance.

In a video clip on their website, they show a soldier pulling the small drone out of his kit and throwing it in the air to launch the drone. Not sure if that would be a great idea of the blades are indeed razor-sharp… Another video shows how a fixed-wing drone is being destroyed while flying over what seems to be a large city like Sydney for instance. I’m sure that these videos are only for demonstration purposed and that a lot of the details still need to be worked out.

We will keep an eye out for further developments from MySky Technologies, as they aim to a Drone Center of Excellence, a place where people could network and work together.

Galley and video

https://youtu.be/VwcYeE1Xirw

https://youtu.be/8tqKfVyqTvA