The wide availability and proliferation of advanced inexpensive small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) has enabled a wide variety of beneficial new commercial and civilian use cases such as medical delivery to remote areas, border surveillance and even commercial aircraft maintenance among others. However, as shown in several high profile incidents over the last year where airport operations were completely shut down or the temporary suspension of a high profile NFL playoff game in January, illegally operated drones are a new reality that have to be addressed in civilian airspace. Jeffrey Starr, Chief Marketing Officer, D-Fend Solutions, is the guest on this episode of the Aerospace & Defense Technology podcast. Check out D-Fend’s drone incident tracker to see a real-time collection of illegal, nefarious and careless operation of drones at airports, prisons, borders and even neighborhoods around the world. During the podcast, he explains how D-Fend's RF Cyber Takeover technology works, where its being operated today and how the threat of illegally operated drones is growing at airports, sports stadiums, prisons and elsewhere.

What is metamaterials electronically scanned array (MESA) technology and how is it providing a new approach to surveillance within counter unmanned aerial system (UAS) radar applications? Tom Driscoll, Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Echodyne, is the guest on this episode of the Aerospace & Defense Technology podcast to answer these questions and more. www.saemediagroup.com/magazines/adt www.techbriefs.com/podcast www.mobilityengineeringtech.com twitter.com/TechBriefsMag

This is the second part of our interview with Michael O'Hara, CUAS Mission Solutions and Strategy Manager for Northrop Grumman. In the second part of the interview, O’Hara provides more perspective on how the use of directed energy, high-powered lasers and microwaves can be improved to become more effective in countering the proliferation of small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in warfare. O’Hara also explains why counter UAS is a subset of broader air defense countermeasures, and gives some insight on the future of counter UAS technology. Check out the latest digital/print editions of Aerospace & Defense Technology as well as online aerospace and defense coverage on our websites and social media channels below: www.saemediagroup.com/magazines/adt www.techbriefs.com/podcast www.mobilityengineeringtech.com twitter.com/TechBriefsMag

On this episode of the Aerospace & Defense Technology podcast, the guest is Michael O'Hara, CUAS Mission Solutions and Strategy Manager for Northrop Grumman. O'Hara provides unique insight into how the use of small inexpensive drones on the battlefield in Ukraine and other modern conflicts is changing the way the U.S. military deploys and operates counter unmanned aerial system (UAS) technology. Check out the Council on Foreign Relations article "How the Drone War in Ukraine Is Transforming Conflict," to read the article that is referenced in the intro. In the first half of the interview, O'Hara discusses how Northrop Grumman first entered the military C-UAS space, how Ukraine is changing the way C-UAS technologies are deployed and operated and the effectiveness of directed energy, high powered lasers and other new kinetic and non-kinetic countermeasures in warfare. Look out for the second half of the interview in the next episode!

Welcome to the first season of the new Aerospace & Defense Technology podcast. The guest on this episode is Shaan Shaikh, a fellow with the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). In November, Shaikh co-authored a 64-page report, "Countering Small Uncrewed Aerial Systems," which outlines the military threats posed by small uncrewed aerial systems (sUAS). The report assesses the challenging nature of the C-sUAS mission for the Department of Defense with a threat that is "cheap and plentiful" against defenses that are "still emerging and bring significantly higher costs." Shaikh discusses the cost of countering small UAS at air, land and sea, as well as how the concept of operations for C-sUAS is still evolving.