Autonomous BVLOS response against air and ground attacks demonstrated in Israel

Three Israeli drone companies have teamed up to deliver a three-day showcase of a holistic autonomous security solution. High Lander Aviation, Sentrycs and Cando Drones delivered the showcase at Caesarea Business Park in northern Israel to invited guests including representatives from multiple city municipalities, police forces and security heads, and a number of embassy delegations.

The system, operating on High Lander’s Orion drone fleet management platform, executed rapid response protocols against simulated threats. For ground-based incidents, drones were dispatched from autonomous charging stations and flew to incident scenes at predetermined altitudes while sharing both telemetry data and live video feeds with the facility’s command center, before returning for precision landings at their charging stations. Air incursions were met with integrated counter-drone measures that detected the non-cooperative drones and the location of their controllers before usurping control and landing the aircraft safely for investigation. 

Further capabilities of the Orion operating system were also demonstrated, including live feed sharing via a temporary link, AI-powered object detection and tracking, full control of drone payloads from the command center dashboard and manual control of the drones themselves, multiple simultaneous flights, and hot replacement of low-battery drones. All operations, video feeds and relevant data was displayed on a real-time map at the command center. 

The missions were conducted autonomously, and as the operators remained inside the command center, beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS). Because of Orion’s safety features such as GPS loss protection, terrain recognition and collision avoidance algorithms, Caesarea Business Park was granted permission to operate autonomous and BVLOS flights by Israel’s Civil Aviation Authority, a first for the country. 

The counter-drone features of the system were provided by High Lander’s partner, Sentrycs. The company’s DTI and mitigation modules are designed to detect drone activity, extract user-level identification from drones, and mitigate uncooperative drones by disconnecting them from their remote controls and assuming direct control in order to land them safely. 

The showcase drew both domestic and international attention because of the recent heightened demand for security drones throughout Israel and because of the potential applications of the system in public security, smart city infrastructure, border control, and first response for all branches of the emergency services.