Indra recently presented its anti-drone protection system to the main suppliers of air traffic systems in the world. It was during the last edition of the World ATM Congress held in Madrid last March. We invited some of the bodies that manage air traffic in the most important airports on the planet to witness a real demonstration of their system.

If you want to get an idea of what this solution is like, you can watch this video before continuing reading.

The test location was an experimental center of the Spanish Air Force, a few kilometers from the capital of Spain.

Several small drones weighing between 500 grams and 3 kilos took off in a specially set up flight zone.

From the control center, attendees saw how the high-definition radar detected the presence of these devices several kilometers away.

In a coordinated way, the long-range infra-red cameras confirmed the targets and kept track of them. Their traces were shown on a digital map on the system screen.

Meanwhile, 60 kilometers away at the IFEMA exhibition center, where one of the largest and most important ATM events in the world was taking place, a large group of experts followed the demonstration streamed live by Indra.

Neutralizing the target

Back at the ARMS control center, the surveillance software issued an alarm when one of the devices first invaded the area under protection, followed by the rest in a joint attack.

At that moment, a whole series of countermeasures was unleashed to block the pilot control link to the aircraft and drone navigation systems. The pilots lost control and the devices, which went into self-protection mode to avoid crashing, landing in a few seconds and getting neutralized.

The development of this system combines the knowledge we at Indra have as a leading global company in air traffic and in the defense sector.

Thanks to this, we have been able to design an anti-drone system that uses jamming techniques in a very controlled way to minimize interference with other systems.

ARMS is also integrated with control tower systems, which makes it possible to screen out all authorized airport traffic as a threat, thus preventing false alarms.