COURAGEOUS: Test Methods for Counter-UAS Systems

The proliferation of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), both commercial-off-the-shelf and homebuilt, is increasingly posing a challenge to the authorities. Law enforcement agencies are confronted with the new task of policing the lower airspace, requiring them to be equipped with effective and appropriate counter-UAS systems for detecting, tracking, identifying (DTI) the offending drone. A number of technologies exists on the market today, using radar, EO/IR, acoustic and RF sensors. Evaluating the performance of these systems is not a trivial task, as different nations and entities often have different approaches. The COURAGEOUS project seeks to develop evaluation methodologies for counter-UAS systems, leading to a CENELEC pre-standard. We organized one of three validation trials for this project, implementing a maritime border protection scenario. We invited manufacturers to test their systems against a range of UAS, comparing their DTI data to the flightpath ground truth. These evaluations were not ranked to determine the best technology, but rather used to evaluate the usefulness of the evaluation methods developed by the project, allowing us to progress towards developing an EU-wide standard for evaluating DTI technologies.