A production version of the Anti-UAV Defence System (AUDS) developed by Blighter Surveillance Systems together with Chess Dynamics and Enterprise Control Systems (ECS) is on display at DSEI. Combining radar target detection, electro-optical tracking and classification, and directional RF inhibition capability, AUDS is designed to disrupt and neutralize UAVs. Due to the proliferation of UAVs and the potential use of them by terrorists or for espionage, there is a growing need for C-UAV systems and the British consortium that has developed AUDS has come forward with a comprehensive yet compact solution. AUDS has been tested during trials with the British MoD, in France and in Arizona in the United States according to Chris Fulthorpe, business development manager for systems at ECS. Speaking to Military Technology, Fulthorpe said "Having been thoroughly tested, AUDS is a sophisticated yet mature system unlike some of the solutions now on offer by some of our competitors". Fulthorpe expects a first contract to be announced in the next couple of weeks which would pave the way for serial production to commence. AUDS uses a Blighter A400 series passive electronically scanning FMCW doppler air security radar operating in the Ku-band with a range of up to 8 km. Chess Dynamics' Hawkeye camera system has a Piranha 46 HD 2.3 megapixel colour camera with 30 times optical zoom and 12 times digital zoom, a Gen 3 cooled MWIR camera with continuous zoom, a Vision4ce digital video tracker together with an optional optical disruptor using a high energy beam. The Directional RF Inhibitor supplied by ECS has three antennas which according to information stemming from recent product brochures cover three RF bands, 433MHz, 915MHz and 2.4GHz.
Pieter Bastiaans