Police Join Forces To Defeat Enemy Drones

Police chiefs in Britain are working with NATO to introduce possible anti-drone technology to combat the threat posed by drones, Sky News has learned.

A potential tool in the fight against terrorism, forces are considering a range of options including identifying, tracking, and disruption systems.

Police chiefs are working with international partners in the US and Europe "to develop the appropriate technical response".

Professor David Dunn, from the University of Birmingham, says the risk of terrorists using drones means the need for new methods of controlling drones is "urgent".

He told Sky News the increase in hobbyists' drone use also highlighted the need protect airspace.

"If you look at the drone use in America incidents of near-misses of aircraft are particularly concerning," he said.

"Therefore there is a degree to which inevitably there will be a collision unless some means is found to regulate, to stop and to prevent the unregulated use of these systems in same airspace as ours.

"Aircraft at two or three hundred feet could be attacked with drones or multiple drones and swarmed in the engine. That can bring down a large aircraft with devastating effects."

Major UK airports are already involved in discussions over what technology will provide the best defence against drones.

Government departments, in Britain and worldwide, are undertaking demonstrations and trials of disruption systems.

Three companies, Enterprise, Chess Systems and Blighter, which have developed the Anti-UAV Defence System (Auds) have also now signed agreements with the United States' aviation authority (FAA) to test its capability for airports.

Mark Radford, CEO of Blighter Surveillance, says they have already demonstrated their system, which costs just under £1m, in around 20 countries and have had inquiries from over 50.

"There is of course a growing threat to airports, military bases, and government establishments," he told Sky News.

"We rapidly detect, track with the thermal camera, and then disrupt the communications to that drone and then by careful application of the jamming system we can either force the drone to land or force it to return back to the operator and then track it on the radar so the security forces can follow it and intercept that operator."

Anti-drone technology is expected to be deployed over stadiums in France during the Euro 2016 championships.

Ziad Khoury, the tournament's security chief, said the technology would deal with any drones that violate no-fly zones over all 10 stadiums and training grounds.

French authorities have reportedly trained for the possibility of drones being used to disperse chemical or biological weapons over crowds.

Mr Khoury has described the technology as a "dissuasive measure that didn't exist at previous sports events".