Echodyne radars in DARPA programme testing
Echodyne’s radar technology was deployed as part of a test flight for DARPA’s Aerial Dragnet programme in San Diego during October.
Echodyne’s EchoGuard and EchoFlight radars were deployed on two large tethered aerostat balloons flying at an altitude of 400ft over San Diego and National City, as well as fixed building-top and tower mounted locations. The testing assessed how well the systems could detect, track and identify over 150 sorties of drones in simulated rogue drone operational scenarios.
The radars were tuned to tuned to detect and track small drones and distinguish them from background objects such as buildings, vehicles and birds, in order to deliver comprehensive surveillance of drone activity in San Diego’s urban airspace.
The test was carried out in conjunction with the Applied Physics Laboratory at the University of Washington.
DARPA’s Aerial Dragnet programme aims to enable the detection and tracking of small UAS in urban terrain. The programme seeks new technologies to provide persistent, wide-area surveillance of all UAS operating below 1,000ft in a large city. While the focus is on protecting military troops operating in urban settings overseas, the system could ultimately find civilian application to help protect US metropolitan areas from UAS-enabled
terrorist threats.
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