US grappling with counter-UAS technology challenges

As Defence IQ has recently reported, the rising number of criminal and negligent incidents involving civilian unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) is pushing harder on the need for a greater awareness of the potential dangers to the public. However, in many cases, awareness is just not enough. The progress of UAS technology requires a tandem attention to the progress of counter-technology – effective and safe methods of neutralising these vehicles when they become a threat, particularly to vulnerable civil sites.

Much of this process is being made in the United States, where the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has, as of August 29, released a rule to allow for the use of small UAS within national airspace. To get a better perspective on how this technology is moving forward, we caught up with Andrew Lacher, UAS Integration Lead and Research Strategist at technology R&D centre the MITRE Corporation, ahead of his brief at the Countering Drones conference...