France tests Kamikaze, netted Interceptor Drones to protect Nuclear Reactors

[Victorious Secret]

 

 

This is a pretty cool way to deal with idiots who think flying anything near a nuclear reactor (without permission, I'm sure these places would be fine if you ASKED and arranged well beforehand). A drone to take out other drones. Pretty sure this is how Skynet gets started. 

 

In either case, its fun to see these guys take matters into their own hands and do things in a non-violent way while still solving a problem. I personally would be a fan of the "ram into the drone" approach but this way, the nuclear sites can down drones and then add them into their arsenals, amusing to say the least. If you're foolish enough to fly near a reactor, you should be prepared to deal with the consequences. 

 

http://giant.gfycat.com/IdenticalTameIchthyostega.gif

 

Spotted by the Associated Press, this net-carrying drone is not the Rapere interceptor, a concept anti-drone quadcopter announced last month. The Rapere hunted drones with cameras and attacked them by tangling their rotors in wire. This drone, photographed by Francois Mori, is instead an Interceptor MP200, made by French firm Malou Tech.

 

In a segment shown on French television, Malou Tech pilot Philippe Dardini uses the Interceptor to catch a DJI Phantom piloted by Philippe Dubus, the company's CEO. The interceptor is a much larger and faster drone, with six rotors, and the net it carries looks thick and heavy.

 

Sure, the interceptor can catch a drone in the air, but there's still a long way to go from this demonstration to actually catching one that's spying on a nuclear reactor facility. If the interceptor doesn't work, Malou Tech has another way to knock drones out of the sky: just careen a kamikaze drone into them.

http://www.popsci.com/france-tests-kamikaze-netted-interceptor-drones-protect-nuclear-reactors

 

[werto165]

Aren't france something like the highest producer of nuclear energy, or something along those lines? I guess it's understandable that you don't want drones flying over, is  it that they don't want things that could be carried by a drone, explosives for example to be flown over(I know that would be worse case scenario). Or is it something completely different? 

[Victorious Secret]

Aren't france something like the highest producer of nuclear energy, or something along those lines? I guess it's understandable that you don't want drones flying over, is  it that they don't want things that could be carried by a drone, explosives for example to be flown over(I know that would be worse case scenario). Or is it something completely different? 

 

Thats one of the fears, explosive ordnance anywhere near a nuclear reactor. Everyone remembers Chernobyl. No one wants to even risk 1/100000000000th of that ever happening again, so they minimize risk. Nuclear reactors might as well be more secured than a missile silo as far as these guys are concerned. 

Even your average DJI Phantom (like mine) can be rigged to carry a substantial enough payload to cause concern. These custom rigs can carry several kilos of whatever you want. They just don't want to put up with the risk. I do understand that getting footage of reactors is cool, cause I think reactor complexes look nice (especially the cooling towers) but its still a minimizing risk thing. 

I'd probably volunteer my time to be a site protector, taking down drones just for kicks. 

 

Sites CAN ask to be placed on GPS exclusion lists so the drones flat out won't work but more advanced users who fly without GPS control boards OR are good enough at flying that they don't need them won't be deterred by that. Nothing short of making the sites a "dead space" with interference in the 2.4 and 5.8 bands would stop this from happening entirely. 

[wpirobotbuilder]

This is really cool, but drone-to-drone warfare is kind of a scary concept.

 

Nuclear reactors might as well be more secured than a missile silo as far as these guys are concerned.

They already are. Here's a decent summary, in video form.

[Syntaxvgm]

This is easier. 

[AlexGoesHigh]

that definitely should scare any asshole that get to close, i love it

[werto165]

DJI Phantom nice! Anyway a little more on topic, yeah a pretty large amount of explosive payload could be carried with 7kgs... I'm not sure how the cooling towers work totally but flying over on of those and your drone running out of power could be a real headache for the engineers that work on them. 

[Victorious Secret]

that definitely should scare any asshole that get to close, i love it

 

The irony that they are using DJI's bigger brother Sxxx/Sxxxx platforms to take down the Phantoms. Love it! I would also like one. The cost is outrageous. 

[AlexGoesHigh]

Is it so hard to just use radio jammers?

problem whit those that they would also block their own signals unless they have very expensive military equipment 

[AlexGoesHigh]

The irony that they are using DJI's bigger brother Sxxx/Sxxxx platforms to take down the Phantoms. Love it! I would also like one. The cost is outrageous. 

how much dji wants for that beast?

[DildorTheDecent]

no rotors = no problem

[Victorious Secret]

how much dji wants for that beast?

 

A bare S900 starts at 1400 and a bare S1000+ at 1900. Their A2 flight controller system is around another 1000, plus all your add ons like batteries and so forth could bring you to 2500-3000 on a drone. Having said that, I know their hexacopters are stable and very user friendly and the octcopter just has more lifting power. They are professional grade toys, but man could anyone just pick one up and start flying. 

[dalekphalm]

Then they could use directional antennas and/or jam only frequencies that they don't use.

 

With drones, intruder drones would have to be visually spotted and then the interceptors take time to react and must be piloted. The manning costs... I don't think its worth it for how effective its going to be.

Each of those solutions has their own unique issues.

 

Blanket jamming with directional antennas will mean there's a literal dead-zone. What if a patrol needs to go out and inspect an area? They will be unable to communicate with HQ while out there.

 

Jamming specific frequencies is better, assuming they don't use those frequencies... But then, the hypothetical "bad guys" could simply do likewise. You could custom build a drone that uses a variety of frequencies. Only standard off the shelf production units use 2.4 or 5.8 GHz. If a terrorist cell or rogue state is really hell-bent on taking out a Nuclear Power Station, they will find a way to use alternate frequencies if a drone attack is their chosen attack vector. Not to mention an automated drone could in theory operate without any external signals if programmed correctly.

 

There's no perfect solution of course. The best method is combined protections. These drones are an excellent first-line of defence against rogue drones.

[ComradeHX]

Is it so hard to just use radio jammers?

That's illegal for civilians in some countries.

[dalekphalm]

That's illegal for civilians in some countries.

True, though Nuclear Power Stations can often get exemptions for rules like that, since their security is a matter of national security.

[RowleyBro]

Please tell me that someone somewhere is making a drone that fires silly string at another drone to take it out of the sky! 

[pdv789]

You know, the easiest solution I can come up with would be blast proof metal doors ... wait they already have that at every nuclear power plant. I don't think the payloads that a drone could carry would be something to worry about to be honest. With that said though I would rather the reactors be as secure as possible considering what is/happened in japan in the last 2 years.

[dalekphalm]

You know, the easiest solution I can come up with would be blast proof metal doors ... wait they already have that at every nuclear power plant. I don't think the payloads that a drone could carry would be something to worry about to be honest. With that said though I would rather the reactors be as secure as possible considering what is/happened in japan in the last 2 years.

One of those Interceptor MP200 drones can carry several kilograms. Now, if you rigged it with several kilos of C4 explosive, or some other high powered shaped charges? Forget about your "blast proof metal doors", shaped charges will blow right through them.

 

Or better yet, they fly one of the drones up into the cooling tower, drop it inside, and detonate the explosives. You can only "armour" so much of a nuclear power station.

 

Better to prevent the Drone from ever coming close, to prevent risk to staff and property.

[Victorious Secret]

One of those Interceptor MP200 drones can carry several kilograms. Now, if you rigged it with several kilos of C4 explosive, or some other high powered shaped charges? Forget about your "blast proof metal doors", shaped charges will blow right through them.

 

Or better yet, they fly one of the drones up into the cooling tower, drop it inside, and detonate the explosives. You can only "armour" so much of a nuclear power station.

 

Better to prevent the Drone from ever coming close, to prevent risk to staff and property.

 

Yup, cooling towers are a crucial component of nuclear power plants, they are juicy targets for those who want to cause some harm. There are low profile cooling towers in use (France themselves make use of them) but not every place is setup for that. 

[Norman_the_Owl]

This is really cool, but drone-to-drone warfare is kind of a scary concept.

 

 

Always makes me think of the ender's game movie with the drones fighting the aliens whose name i forget. Cool stuff

[Lord Baal]

 

 

Sites CAN ask to be placed on GPS exclusion lists so the drones flat out won't work but more advanced users who fly without GPS control boards OR are good enough at flying that they don't need them won't be deterred by that. Nothing short of making the sites a "dead space" with interference in the 2.4 and 5.8 bands would stop this from happening entirely. 

Wouldn't work as someone with tens of thousands of dollars in RC vehicles of pretty much every type and still owning vehicles and radio gear ranging from the late 70's to the current high end it would be near impossible to block every frequency I can use just with things I already own.  2.4 and 5.8 are pretty much just the off the shelf frequencies for newbies lol.  

As for payloads we custom built a drone from scratch able to carry a slab of beer in 1 afternoon in the garage so if our goal was to blow something up we could build a drone to carry what ever weight was required with relative ease. If I really wanted to I could probably make a drone able to just disable or seize control of their anti drone drones.

That said if I were going to try and infiltrate a power station or something such as with a radio controlled vehicle I'd just modify one of my faster rock crawlers or off road racers so it was able VTOL and fly over anything it wasn't able to drive over or through and good luck catching it on the ground.

[The Crazed Child]

I'm sure someone will use a fixed wing drone instead, much more harder to intercept.

[euniqe]

Aren't france something like the highest producer of nuclear energy, or something along those lines? I guess it's understandable that you don't want drones flying over, is  it that they don't want things that could be carried by a drone, explosives for example to be flown over(I know that would be worse case scenario). Or is it something completely different? 

 

 

They're doing it for the multiple-country Fusion project. All the countries who don't have the resources to participate will be very interested to understand exactly what is going on.

 

Yes, they are the world's largest consumer (or producer, I forget) of Nuclear Electricity, but that's not the point. 

 

ITER is what it's called. It could be the single greatest achievement in human history, and it deserves all the protection it can get.

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITER

[SIGSEGV]

In a few years we'll probably be seeing full on drone on drone warfare