Drone-plagued Dublin Airport receives authorization to use counter-UAV tech

Recurring drone disruptions – and the political and business fallout produced by them – that plagued Dublin Airport earlier this year may now be drawing to a close, thanks to clearance from Irish regulators for the platform to begin using counter-UAV assets to deal with the invasive craft.

Dublin Airport took a super-sized helping of guff earlier this year after drones invading the prohibited airspace caused operators to repeatedly halt traffic. At the low point in March, the platform reported its sixth UAV incursion in nearly as many weeks. The resulting suspension of flights during the last of those closures alone affected an estimated 200,000 people, with incoming travelers diverted to Irish airports between 135 and 200 kilometers away.

Subsequent disruptions from drone sightings in the banned space around Dublin Airport included a 10-minute pause in flights just last month.

Read: Dedrone expands its role in FAA airport drone detection trials

Inconvenienced fliers have been understandably hacked off by the repeated disturbances blamed on illicit UAV operation, while heads of airlines forced to deal with countless delayed or cancelled flights have screamed bloody murder.

That anger, moreover, was frequently reinforced by stupefaction.

Indeed, reports at the time suggested Dublin Airport was already equipped with counter-drone assets to deal with such invasions. Yet operators somehow still relied on human sightings of UAVs – and the eventual arrival of alerted police to hunt down positions of wayward pilots – for detection and mitigation.

As those media accounts-cum-belittling-accusations swirled – and passengers seethed – Ireland’s government ordered Dublin Airport operator DAA to purchase effective anti-UAV tech to deal with the problem once and for all. Yet once that was done, administrators still found themselves unable to use it – which appears to have been also the case with earlier counter-drone assets the airport reportedly possessed.

The reason: the long legal process involved in Ireland’s Ministry of Communications permitting Dublin Airport to use the Dedrone detection, identification, and mitigation tech it had bought to jam, scramble, or otherwise brain-fry UAVs illegally entering its airspace, which involves beaming signals over Irish airwaves.

That authorization, according to reports published Thursday, has now come through, and will allow trained staff at Dublin Airport to operate the counter-UAV system to zap invasive drones rather than halt passenger traffic until the air clears.

As proof the asset is up, running, and ready to intercept illicit UAV activity in the area, Irish aerospace journalist @Shauns_Aviation posted a newly snapped photo of a Dedrone radar sensor positioned with the Dublin Airport control tower and an ascending plane as its background. (Cap doffed to @UAVHive for retweeting the alert.)

Officials at DAA are clearly relieved at being outfitted with the same kind of cutting-edge anti-drone platforms other major air hubs use, but even more so at having finally been given the legal authorization to deploy that tech to keep Dublin Airport clear of drones.

“Having recently received the necessary approvals, the anti-drone technology is fully operational and available for use as and when required at Dublin Airport,” the DAA said, doubtless feeling somewhat vindicated after the public and media belittling it endured since UAVs began appearing last spring – flack that, at least partially, should have been directed at slow moving political leaders instead. “We acted quickly in response to the Government’s direction on this matter, purchasing the counter-drone equipment and training our relevant personnel in its use within just weeks.”

Read: US Army tests crowd-sourcing counter-UAV smartphone app

Still with prevention better than cure – and millions of passengers wanting to avoid chaos resulting from UAV invasions again – the DAA made a point of reminding “all drone users that it is illegal to operate a drone within 5km of any Irish airport.”

Illegal, but possibly involving limited punitive consequences – unless invaded airports have already sat out the interminable process of getting official approval to use their anti-drone chops.

Photo: @Shauns_Aviation