World's First Fully Integrated Anti-UAV Defence System (AUDS) Now Features Quad Band RF Inhibitor and Optical Disruptor

LONDON, September 8, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

• All British AUDS team - Blighter Surveillance Systems, Chess Dynamics and Enterprise Control Systems - adds new capability to production version of counter UAV/drone system following extensive government sponsored spring/summer trials  
• New features include a fourth inhibitor band, an optical disruptor and additional modularity for ease of deployment; AUDS is designed to detect, track, classify and disrupt the growing threat of malicious UAVs at ranges of up to 8km/5 miles 
• Fully featured production version of AUDS to be unveiled at the DSEI Show, the world's leading defence and security event, at the ExCeL Centre, London, 15 to 18 September 2015

The world's first fully integrated detect-track-disrupt Anti-UAV Defence System (AUDS) - launched by a trio of British companies in May this year - now features a quad band radio frequency (RF) inhibitor/jammer, an optical disruptor and rapid deployment features in the final production version of the market leading counter-drone system. These enhancements follow extensive customer trials of the pre-production system across Europe and North America over the spring and summer.

The AUDS system, developed by Blighter Surveillance Systems, Chess Dynamics and Enterprise Control Systems, is designed to combat the growing threat of malicious micro, mini and larger unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) or drones. The system can detect a drone five miles (8km) away using electronic scanning radar, track it using infrared and daylight cameras and specialist software before disrupting the flight using an inhibitor to block the radio signals that control it.

Graham Beall, managing director, Chess Dynamics, said: "Countering drones is now a global issue and an increasing concern for the military, government and homeland security forces across every continent. It's expected that unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) will be used increasingly for malicious purposes as they can carry cameras, weapons, toxic chemicals and explosives and are being used increasingly for terrorism, espionage and smuggling purposes.

"Our system has been developed to address this urgent operational requirement and has been successful in government sponsored counter-UAV trials, detecting and disrupting a variety of fixed and rotary wing drones in under 15 seconds. The new capabilities further enhances the system's suitability for countering rogue or malicious unmanned aircraft systems (C-UAS)."

According to the AUDS team, the speed with which new features have been added to the system since the launch in May, demonstrates both the agility and flexibility of the trio of specialist companies. The quad band inhibitor enables the AUDS operator to disrupt the different licensed telemetry bands of commercial drones no matter where in the world they are designed and licensed for use. For example, both the 433 and 915 MHz frequencies commonly used by unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) can be disrupted as can the 2.4 GHz control band and the global satellite (GNSS) bands.

The new optical disruptor is yet another tool available to the AUDS operator. This feature can be utilised for both pointing at a drone for identification purposes and disrupting the automatic gain control settings in the drone's camera system such that the operator loses visibility. The optical disruptor can also provide a very precise identification of known UAV launch activity to any ground forces.

Commenting on the new features, Colin Bullock, CEO, Enterprise Control Systems, said: "Carefully controlled disruption of these command links - and the use of the optical disruptor - significantly impairs the operator's ability to control the drone and forms a key part of the spectrum of techniques used by the AUDS system to mitigate the malicious use of drones."

Other improvements in the production version of the AUDS system include a new positioner for the camera. And, following a whole series of trials in a variety of different terrains, the team has modularised the system to reduce the single lift weight down to 25kg. All the different elements - radar, cameras, and RF inhibitor - now clip together to form a complete system.

Mark Radford, CEO, Blighter Surveillance Systems, added: "We have so far carried out over 150 hours of live testing in government organised trials operating against more than 200 flown sorties of group 1 UAVs. Feedback from our own team and from customers was for a greater level of modularity to speed deployment and to minimise the need for multi person set-up teams. This has now been implemented in the production version - yet another example of our team's fleet footedness."

The Anti-UAV Defence System (AUDS) integrates the Blighter A400 Series Ku band electronic scanning air security radar, Chess Dynamics' stabilised electro-optic director, infrared and daylight cameras and target tracking software, and a directional radio frequency (RF) inhibitor from Enterprise Control Systems to detect, track, classify, disrupt and neutralise UAVs at ranges of up to 8km. The AUDS system is even effective against so-called Group 1 micro UAVs at ranges of up to 2km and Group 1 mini UAVs at ranges of several kms.

The AUDS system is designed for countering drones or remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) in remote border sites or urban areas. It can be operated from fixed locations and from mobile platforms. It has been developed and manufactured in the UK using British technology and a production version is available now at COTS prices starting at less than £800k.

The fully featured production version of AUDS will be unveiled at the DSEI Show, the world's leading defence and security event, taking place at the ExCeL Centre, London, 15 to 18 September 2015. Blighter Surveillance Systems (stand S4-154), Chess Dynamics (stand S8-140) and Enterprise Control Systems (stand S3-260).

For more information about AUDS, please contact any of the partner companies: Blighter Surveillance Systems: visit http://www.blighter.com, telephone +44 (0) 1799 533200 or email [email protected].  Chess Dynamics: visit http://www.chess-dynamics.com, telephone +44 (0) 1403 249888 or email [email protected]. Enterprise Control Systems: visit http://www.enterprisecontrol.co.uk, telephone +44 (0) 1327 860050 or email [email protected]. The AUDS team is represented by Liteye Systems (http://www.liteye.com) as its exclusive channel partner for the USA and Canada.

A high resolution photograph of the Anti-UAV Defence System is available via the link below: http://www.blighter.com/images/images/pr/auds-anti-uav-defence-system-2-high-res.jpg

A promotional video of the AUDS system can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8aZ0zWX3SA

About Blighter Surveillance Systems (http://www.blighter.com)

Blighter Surveillance Systems is an electronic-scanning radar and sensor solution provider. It delivers an integrated multi-sensor package to systems integrators comprising the Blighter e-scan radars, cameras, thermal imagers, trackers and software solutions. Blighter radars combine patented solid-state Passive Electronically Scanned Array (PESA) technology - utilising digital beamforming (DBF) on transmit and receive - with advanced Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) and Doppler processing to provide a robust and persistent surveillance capability and an unmatched combination of high reliability, accuracy and performance with a low cost of ownership. Products are manufactured under a BS EN ISO 9001:2008 certified management system. Blighter Surveillance Systems is based at Great Chesterford on the outskirts of Cambridge, England.

About Chess Dynamics (http://www.chess-dynamics.com)

Chess Dynamics is an entirely UK owned British company providing end to end electro-optic and video tracking solutions. Its platforms and cameras are in service with military forces around the world. From the range of Hawkeye electro-optic surveillance systems, the Hawkeye Deployable System (DS) is at the heart of AUDS, combining the proven Viper dynamic positioner (VDP), cooled IR camera, Chess Piranha 46 high resolution daylight camera and video tracking and Graphical User Interface (GUI). All of the elements of the Hawkeye DS are already in service with the Royal Navy and British Army and have been used and supported on operations in Afghanistan. Chess Dynamics' products and EO systems are manufactured on site to BS ES ISO 9001, Mil-Std-461 and 810C. Chess Dynamics is based in Horsham, West Sussex in the UK.

About Enterprise Control Systems (http://www.enterprisecontrol.co.uk)

For over 25 years Enterprise Control Systems Ltd (ECS) has been supplying mission critical RF inhibition systems and surveillance data links in support of security services around the world. ECS is a proven and trusted British supplier to the UK MoD, the UK Police and to specialist military and government users in over 40 other countries. ECS designs and produces a range of programmable jammers (RF Inhibitors) to counter a variety of threats. ECS understands the complex integration necessary between equipment performance, training, tactics, techniques and threat assessment needed to achieve optimum user capability in demanding and dynamic situations. ECS also designs and produces specialist COFDM data links optimised for use in high level military and security domains. ECS data links are fully secured (encrypted), optimised for long range performance and are designed to be robust in complex RF environments. ECS brings together their expertise in data link technology and RF Inhibition to provide a highly effective RF Disruptor for AUDS. ECS is based in Wappenham, Northamptonshire in the UK.  

Media contact:
Martin Brooke
Martin Brooke Associates
Tel: +44(0)1223-882174
Tel: +44(0)7776-135402
Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Blighter Surveillance Systems