Virginia Tech is adding a new level of drone defense research with $5 million from the U.S. Army.
Five months after a rash of mysterious drone sightings along the East Coast, the university announced the award to its well-established uncrewed aerial systems, or UAS, research, according to a news release.
The award will create the Counter UAS Research and Testing Center, with the unmanned aircraft experts at the Virginia Tech National Security Institute and the Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership leading the way. The goal is to help the Department of Defense and law enforcement deal with threats from both novice drone users and bad actors, according to the release.
The aviation partnership, called MAAP, researches domestic threats, while the National Security Institute’s expertise includes threats from enemy states, according to NSI’s Mission Systems director, Austin Phoenix.
MAAP’s ability to do drone testing under Federal Aviation Administration regulations, combined with the security institute’s expertise in artificial intelligence, radio frequency systems and system modeling, will advance the country’s drone defense abilities, Phoenix said in the news release.
The new research and testing center will open “in the coming year,” according to the release. It will feature an outdoor test bed employing sensors to collect data that will show the effectiveness of systems designed to detect and defeat drones in areas flooded with multiple Bluetooth and Wi-Fi signals.
An indoor facility will keep out external signals, so workers can collect UAS signatures and test commercial counter systems. The Counter UAS Research and Testing Center will also use a virtual environment for testing and building.
“We’ll be able to recreate these virtual environments in the outdoor test environment by generating signals that look like cars, Bluetooth devices, and other challenging aspects we would expect in an urban environment,” Phoenix said.
Money for the center is coming from the U.S. Army Futures Command Combat Capabilities Development Command C5ISR Center.
“This research is going to immediately contribute to the Department of Defense’s efforts to keep people and critical infrastructure safe,” MAAP director Tombo Jones said in the news release. “Long term, we’re also building a foundation for future research that will benefit any agency — federal, state, or local — that has an interest in protecting resources and assets from a variety of UAS threats.”
