Counter-UAS protection via RF Emissions (CURE)

Recent conflicts worldwide have exposed the vulnerability of ground vehicles to attacks by unmanned aerial systems (UAS). The US Army’s Modular Active Protection Systems Framework (MAF) must detect UAS, assess the UAS threat risk, and track the UAS. Nokomis will develop and demonstrate a passive, low size, weight, and power (SWaP) counter-UAS (C-UAS) detection, identification and tracking system that is versatile, easily deployable, and operable on ground vehicles. This system, based on Nokomis’ ultrasensitive TRL9 Hiawatha Radio Frequency (RF) sensor, will passively detect both active and Unintended RF Emissions (URE) from UAS electronics, and track multiple UAS simultaneously. This C-UAS protection via RF Emissions (CURE) system will use UAS’ URE signature to characterize its electronics, subsystems, payload, differentiate between friendly and hostile UAS, and assess its threat risk. Since existing UAS sensing modalities do not provide a single “silver bullet” C-UAS solution, CURE will be positioned to complement and integrate with existing C-UAS systems. Hiawatha has detected a Group 2 UAS camera’s URE from 15 km out, detects Group 1 UAS camera’s UREs 1-2 km away and is projected to detect them beyond 3 km. Hiawatha can detect active emissions from UAS beyond 10 km. It has substantial EMI/EMC design characteristics to perform in highly cluttered EM jamming environments, meets various MIL-STD ruggedization requirements, and targets can be detected by while the Hiawatha is on a moving vehicle unlike other C-UAS systems where the vehicle must be stationary. This effort’s objective is to demonstrate feasibility of using Nokomis’ passive ultrasensitive RF sensors as a CURE system for ground vehicles by detecting, identifying, and tracking UAS.