Israel, February 12, 2020– In a video posted on the official Youtube channel of Rafael (manufacturer of advanced defense systems for the Israeli Defense Forces and customers around the world) we can see for the first time anti-drone defence system in action,using its hard-kill LASER BEAM . The system is used by US and British special forces since 2018 and was also once called in to defeat a hostile drone at Gatwick airport, but that system uses soft-kill.
Rafael successfully completed a demo on a laser-based interceptor system on Wednesday. The Drone Dome system intercepted multiple UAVs (3 drone swarm) with a laser beam, tracking targets in day and night conditions.
The demo shows the system that is made up of a military vehicle, detection is provided by a combination of a RADA Innovative Defense Electronics RPS-42 pMHR S-band multimission 90° hemispheric radar (four radars to give full 360° coverage), the Controp MEOS electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) surveillance suite, and the NetSense Wideband detection sensor developed by Netline; command-and-control is provided by a command console and a hard kill is provided by a high-power LASER beam.
Rafael used DJI Phantom-class drone systems as the hostile targets in the demo; engagement ranges and specific laser dwell time required to defeat the threat was not disclosed.
The radar usually has a detection range of about 50 km for a target the size of a transport aircraft, but for the class of target that it is looking for in its Drone Dome application the radar provides a detection range of between 3.5 km and 10 km. As well as providing detection, the RPS-42 also offers the option for a ‘soft-kill’ of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) when integrated with the RF jammer. The system uses a gallium nitride solid-state active electronically scanned array antenna, and being relatively small and light is suitable for static and vehicle-based applications.
