SPAROW for Drone Tracking

The war in Ukraine has shown the effectiveness of low cost and weaponizable unmanned aerial systems from the larger Iranian made Shahed 136 for fixed targets to the smaller first-person view (FPV) quadcopter UAS that wreak havoc on every kind of mobile ground asset. Active systems like radar are becoming an ineffective means to counter these threats as they can be difficult to pick up with their small cross-sections and pinging with a radar is like broadcasting your position to the enemy. Scientific Applications and Research Associates (SARA), Inc. presents a means to detect and track all manners of UAS from mobile ground assets at significant ranges using passive acoustics. All UAS always emit sound and using a method to derive significant array gain through low-overhead computational algorithms, SARA’s high-TRL acoustic sensor hardware and software can be leveraged to detect and alert on UAS threats from significant ranges to allow for ample time for friendly forces to act. SARA’s portfolio of acoustic sensor system algorithms can detect multiple threats simultaneously. Our system hardware has been ruggedized to MIL-STD-810 and has been integrated with vehicle platforms from the UH-60 Blackhawk to the M2 Bradley.