Counter-Drone Solutions for Border Protection & Security

DIFFICULT TIMES AT THE BORDERLINES

Border agencies have long been battling smuggling by drones, but the threat has become more difficult and potentially deadly. Drug cartels in southern Mexico are now strapping drones with explosives and grenades, in an effort to harm their enemies and law enforcement personnel, according to Business Insider.

In addition to the drug smuggling scourge and attacks, drones are also used to look for vulnerabilities in border fences and track the location and movements of border agents and other security personnel.

Overcoming these challenges is difficult for border security agencies, in part because borders are usually long and can be delineated by mountains, shorelines, or densely populated urban areas.

While confronting these challenges, border security personnel must consider jurisdiction and privacy concerns, as well as evolving regulations – which often differ between countries and regions.

TRADITIONAL SOLUTIONS’ LIMITATIONS

Radar operators on the border occasionally find it difficult to differentiate between small drones and other flying objects, such as birds, and receive false alarms. Without a counter-drone mitigation capability, it is necessary to use radars and cameras to track border-crossing drones and then send personnel to check if contraband was dropped. This approach is time-consuming and has a low success rate.

Unlike traditional anti-drone solutions on the market, our flagship product, EnforceAir, uses non-kinetic and non-jamming technologies. D-Fend Solutions’ effectively prevents the type of collateral damage caused by kinetic or jamming solutions. It is also important to note that existing communication signals operating on certain frequency bands (Wi-Fi and point-to-point communications) could be disrupted or interrupted by some counter-drone capabilities, such as jammer-based systems.

BOLSTERING THE BORDER

D-Fend Solutions’ offering empowers border security agencies to retrieve drone payloads being carried by rogue drones, which is important when drones are carrying drugs and/or explosives. The system also identifies and tracks the location of the drones’ take-off positions and remote-control operators.

EnforceAir is an ideal solution to protect borders from illegal drone incursions, regardless of terrain. The solution requires no line-of-sight for detection and can be deployed in both static and mobile, on-the-move configurations. EnforceAir’s Multi-Sensor Command and Control (MSC2) system fuses sensor data from multiple EnforceAir systems into one user interface, combining artificial intelligence and machine learning to select the optimal sensor/system to mitigate a threatening drone, while other sensors continue monitoring the airspace

Relevant solution deployments include:

• Ground-Level Tactical kit
• Military Vehicle kit
• Vehicle kit
• Long-Range Directional kit

Many border units utilize drones for aerial security along the border in places where there may be camera gaps. Solutions employed by these units must not disable the use of sUASs. With the EnforceAir system, drones can be tagged, or white-listed as “authorized” to fly near the border, and continue operating while being tracked by the system. This capability is often absent from radars and other traditional detection systems employed today and is essential to a system-of-systems approach.