QinetiQ: Laser-controlled drone

2022: Laser-controlled drone announcement

At the end of July 2022, the British defense company QinetiQ demonstrated the world's first laser-controlled drone, which can evade anti-drone systems (UAVs).

Anti-drone systems typically attack radio control systems or GPS UAVs, depriving the pilot of the ability to control them as well as perform programmed missions. To combat UAVs, several types of systems are used:

• Detection: using specialized equipment, airspace is scanned to detect communication channels through which commands are transmitted to drones;
• Suppression: the installed signal source is duplicated with the substitution of the introduction of other commands into the device that divert the drone to distant areas and disable it;
• Monitoring: a special interface that helps to quickly develop a program of solutions for protecting an object (territory) from UAVs.

World's first laser-controlled drone

The demonstration, which QinetiQ claims is the world's first, showed a new two-way Optical Free Space Communication System (FSOC) designed to supplement or replace radio control for military missions in areas where the enemy may have radio frequency blocking or detection capabilities.

The system requires line of sight to communicate between a ground station and a very high-capacity drone, which will limit its use. According to the developers, ground equipment looks quite compact, and in addition to successfully passing through radio frequency jammers, it also makes it almost impossible to intercept or even detect a data stream.

QinetiQ sees the FSOC system as a way to negate significant investments that opponents may have made in blocking the radio frequency spectrum. The company demonstrated the capabilities of the laser system in a project called "Air Command and Control, Surveillance and Interaction" organized by the UK Ministry of Defence.^[1]

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