Another Safety Layer in the Airspace of Things

Drone delivery-driven consumer commerce, from giant retailers such as Amazon and Walmart, is becoming a reality. In the US, California, Texas, Ohio and North Dakota are already on the way towards establishing a drone-friendly environment to drive such commerce. The larger and parallel trend toward urban and advanced air mobility can also be seen across a wide range of other sectors, such as media, enterprises, national and homeland security, law enforcement, and more.

While commercial drones continue to proliferate as they become smaller and faster, we can’t ignore the ever-increasing number of drone incidents. Proper airspace and infrastructure safety – with all these drones flying around – will be a critical component for future airspace management. In fact, the White House Domestic Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems National Action Plan and the recently proposed detection and mitigation legislation showcases the level of visibility and awareness in taking significant steps to enable authorities to deal with drone threats in a safe manner.

Complementary counter-drone solutions can play a role for airspace management, by contributing to a safety net in the area. That’s where solutions like D-Fend’s EnforceAir can help, enabling authorized drone activities while protecting the airspace and environment from dangerous drones.

As a cyber-centric, multilayered C-UAS solution, EnforceAir is optimally suited to be part of this safety net for our busy and growing airspace of things. The solution’s core mission is to safeguard against unauthorized drones that fly or veer into unapproved areas, and quickly identify, track, and safely remove them from the airspace with no collateral impact to existing flight operations. Such an approach brings unique advantages to the space, including fuller control and safety, the option of capturing the drone, the associated intelligence, and the preservation of continuity.  In addition, EnforceAir would enable airspace managers to understand the drone patterns-of-life over the course of days and months to effectively manage the environment.

Safeguarding the airspace will require an integrated system-of-systems approach. EnforceAir is easily integrated with other systems and modalities for a comprehensive, multilayered defense. Industry cooperation towards such layered safety and defense mechanism brings additional benefits, as different technologies complement each other to provide a broader approach. With multiple detection and mitigation options, defense mechanisms can be selected according to situation and security considerations. Different but complementary technologies work together to provide a broader and deeper defense to deal with multiple scenarios. Continued cross-agency and industry cooperation has become an important part of the effort.

D-Fend Solutions’ EnforceAir, combined with complementary systems from our industry and governmental partners, can provide a relevant level of capability to enable a safe, controlled, drone-friendly   ecosystem   The drone-economy is coming soon, so let’s get ready to make it all work!