Northrop counters UAS in Black Dart
Northrop Grumman has participated in the annual US Department of Defense (DoD) Black Dart counter-UAS technology demonstration exercise, the company announced on 5 October.
Black Dart is the DoD’s largest live-fly, live-fire joint counter-UAS technology demonstration. This year's event was expanded to Eglin Air Force Base for more space and to include littoral and maritime environments. Twenty-five government entities took part and more than 20 variants of UAS were flown to test technologies that identify, detect, defeat and track UAS threats.
Northrop Grumman demonstrated its Mobile Application for UAS Identification (MAUI) mobile acoustic sensor, which operates on Android cell phones and uses the phone’s microphone to detect Group 1 UAS that weigh less than 20 pounds, fly slower than 100kts and lower than 1,200ft.
MAUI's software-based approach uses commercial off-the-shelf mobile devices for beyond-line-of-sight UAS threat detection and identification in high-noise environments.
The company also demonstrated its Drone Restricted Access Using Known EW (DRAKE) radio-frequency negation system that delivers a non-kinetic, selective electronic attack against Group 1 UAS. DRAKE demonstrated how existing counter-improvised explosive device technology can be repurposed for interoperable counter-UAS missions to protect friendly-force communications.
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