Pharovision and Sentrycs conduct three-month drone detection and mitigation test for FAA

The US Federal Aviation Administration selected Pahrovision and Sentrycs to conduct a three-month drone detection and mitigation test at Atlantic City Airport earlier this year.

The testing period started in early July with a view to determining the efficacy of drone tracking, identification, and mitigation capabilities at airports. The companies’ complementary technologies identify and subdue any rogue or unfriendly UAS in the airport’s area of interest. The FAA testing regimen serves to ensure that relevant technologies or systems developed, tested, or deployed by authorised federal departments and agencies do not adversely impact or interfere with safe and efficient operation of the National Airspace System (NAS).

Drone incidents at airports have increased exponentially in recent years, at major and minor hubs from London Gatwick to Washington Reagan National. As drone technology becomes more sophisticated, the frequency of events accelerates and the potential impact is more substantial – ranging from runway shutdowns to catastrophic damage to aircraft. This year, over 60% of drone-aircraft close encounters occurred within 200 feet of an airport: it has never been more imperative to secure American airports with tried and tested counter-drone technology.

“Sentrycs’ solution, based on powerful RF protocol analytics, is specially designed for countering unauthorised drones at airports without causing disruption, ensuring detection and interception of a drone is achieved without collateral damage or interference with the airport’s day-to-day operations,” said Sentrycs CEO, Yoav Zaltzman. “Combining our technology with Pharovision’s detection expertise is a showcase in industry collaboration and advanced counter-drone security”.

The companies have combined their technological solutions to provide defence in depth for counter-drone airport solutions. Sentrycs’ activity is fed to Pharovision through an open API to combine identification and tracking information. Pharovision’s unique scanning EO/IR detection systems work in tandem with Sentrycs techniques to identify and track unauthorised drones.