42 Solutions released a beta version of its App to secure airspaces against non-cooperative drones in October 2019. The development augments the drone detection and ATM situational awareness platform CUPS developed jointly with UK company Rinicom. When a drone is detected, the CUPS C2 App is used to assess whether this drone poses a threat. It does this automatically using pre-configured sensitive areas, and the location of aircraft and authorised drones that are obtained from the integrated ATM and UTM systems. The threat is forwarded to the airport tower and the security App when the CUPS C2 operator acknowledges the threat.
The purpose of the App is to provide security forces with information to deal with the drone threats. It does this by providing the real time location of the threatening drone, its heading and history and (if available) its pilot. The situational awareness can be enhanced with further details about the drone, the location of cooperative drones registered in UTM applications and the location of responding team members. Through a reporting function the status of the action taken is communicated to all stakeholders knowing exactly when the situation is normalised again. Air Traffic Controllers are alarmed only when risks of collision are increasing and preventive action in final approach and/or take-off is needed.
CUPS is a Eurostars project of 42 Solutions, Netherlands and Rinicom, UK and financed by the EU. The system detects non-cooperative drones, assesses threats, shares situational information among stakeholders, has a command and control working position and a ‘human in the loop’-option. CUPS and the mobile App offer jointly enable an effective process to mitigate threats of non-cooperative drones.
