Israeli startup’s counter-drone augmented reality system to deploy with US forces
A new joint Israeli and U.S. program aims to develop an augmented reality based control for unmanned systems to engage in small drone-on-drone warfare.
The new pilot program — led by Israel’s Directorate of Defense Research and Development and the U.S. Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office — is based around the Israeli company Xtend’s Skylord counter-UAV system.
The program has thus far produced a drone system with an immersive interface that protects troops from various aerial threats, according to the Israeli Ministry of Defense. A user can wear goggles to see through the lens of the drone, and using a hand-held controller, can then fly the drone to observe a threat and use the drone’s hard kill ability to knock down the UAV threat.
Landau noted that as some solutions are vulnerable to electronic warfare technology such as jamming, countering threats with “kinetic solutions” is needed. Xtend’s system enables the user to fly the drone into the incoming threat. This requires detection, either visually by the unit in the field or using guidance from a command-and-control system. The goal is to hand over to the machine as much of the job as possible — including piloting the drone while the human user makes decisions.
See the full story here: https://www.defensenews.com/unmanned/2020/09/08/israeli-startups-counter-drone-augmented-reality-system-to-deploy-with-us-forces/